Best Days of Your Life
by TheGirlWhoRemembers
Summary: College!AU. Angus MacGyver's got a lot on his plate: classes at MIT, his part-time job at Dalton Auto Repair, girls (dating is weird), and he's somehow caught the attention of a government think-tank. Not to mention, his best friend is writing a TV show script featuring him in the titular role...
1. Mac Gets a Job

AN: And here's the start of my 3rd _MacGyver_ story! (But the 2nd one I wrote, chronologically.) Hope you enjoy, and happy new year!

* * *

Angus MacGyver was running his usual route around the fringe of MIT's campus when he heard the noises.

A loud clunk, the sound of metal on metal, then another clunk that sounded a lot more like metal hitting someone's foot, followed by loud swearing.

Mac slowed down and jogged past a gym, towards the auto repair shop next door that the swearing was coming from.

Just inside the garage, a tall, muscular man with close-cropped hair was glaring into the open bonnet of a car, hands deep in its engine.

'What is wrong with you, you silly girl?'

 _Of course, when I was a kid, I was told not to talk to strangers, just like everyone else._

 _And yes, walking in to a garage randomly to help a guy I've never met is possibly dangerous and definitely weird…_

 _But I like helping people, and I'm pretty handy with this sort of stuff…_

'Excuse me, would you like a hand?'

The older man turned, surprised, taking on an almost-defensive stance, as if he were expecting to be attacked. As soon as he saw Mac, taking in his skinny frame, MIT T-shirt too loose on his body, and youthful appearance, he relaxed.

Mac tried not to be offended, and instead gestured at the car.

'I don't mean to be rude, but I heard you having some trouble with that car…and well, I've got a bit of a knack for mechanical things…'

The mechanic looked a little sceptical, but waved a hand at the car anyway.

'You're welcome to take a look, kid. I'm warning you, she's been driving me crazy all day. Four years' as a mechanic, and I've not seen-'

Mac, who had been examining the car as the other man spoke, suddenly started grabbing some of the spare parts lying nearby, picked up a couple of tools, and began to work on the engine.

The mechanic just watched, shocked.

A few minutes later, Mac nodded, seemingly satisfied. He closed the lid on the bonnet, and gestured at the still-shocked other man, who automatically reached in through the driver's window and turned the key in the ignition.

The car purred to life.

'Well, I'll be…' The mechanic wiped his hands on his trousers, and held one out for Mac to shake. The younger man took it. 'I'm Jack, Jack Dalton.'

'Angus MacGyver, but everyone calls me Mac.'

Jack looked him up and down for a moment.

'How old are you, kid?'

'Sixteen.'

Jack raised an eyebrow.

'And you're at MIT?'

'First year, doing electrical engineering as my major and mechanical engineering as a minor.'

Jack let out a low whistle.

'How'd you learn to make repairs like that?'

He gestured to the car.

Mac shrugged a little awkwardly.

'I've always liked figuring out how things work, how to fix them, taking them apart, putting them back together again, making them better…I guess I just picked it up?'

The older man shook his head, and reached out and clapped Mac on the shoulder.

'Kid, how'd you like a job? I could use another set of hands around the shop.'

Mac took a look around the garage, then looked at Jack for a moment.

Well, he didn't have a job.

Some money would be good.

And he did like fixing things.

He smiled.

'I'd like that.'

Jack nodded, grinned, and clapped him on the back.

'Welcome to Dalton Auto Repair, Mac.'

'Thanks, Jack.'

* * *

Mac unlocked the door to his dorm and slipped inside.

His roommate, Charlie Robinson, fellow engineering student, called out a greeting.

'Hey, Mac. How was the run?'

Still processing the day's events, Mac walked over to his bed and pulled off his sweat-and-grease covered T-shirt.

'I just got myself a job.'

Charlie, still engrossed in his assignment, gave him a thumbs-up.

'Nice going, Mac!' The eighteen-year-old typed some numbers into his calculator, and shook his head. 'Hey, can you look over what I've done for Pena's assignment so far? I'm not getting anything that makes any sense, and you're the only one I trust to help me out with this…'


	2. Mac Joins the Gym

'9-2, kid, game point!'

Jack pushed past Mac easily and scored.

'And that's the game! Dalton wins again!'

Mac groaned. Jack had a basketball hoop out the back of his shop, and sometimes, after work, if Mac didn't have to rush back to campus for a class or to do an assignment, they'd shoot a few hoops.

It had quickly evolved into a competition.

Which Mac was getting absolutely trounced in.

Jack ruffled his hair affectionately, ignoring the teen's resultant glare.

'You're not strong enough, kid. That's the problem. Not enough meat or muscles on those bones of yours.'

Mac, glancing down at his admittedly lanky frame, looked affronted.

'Come on, old man-'

'-Yeah, kid, I know. You run at least three times a week. And that shows. You're quick, and you're fit. And stronger than you look.' He looked Mac up and down. 'Which is a pretty low bar.' Mac glared at him. 'Look, there's a gym right next door. How about I start training you? We'll get some muscle on to you, and then maybe, one day, you might stand a chance against me.'

The teen considered for a moment. Jack knew what he was doing; he'd been in the Army. And he _did_ want to beat the older man in basketball…

'I'm in.' He reached out and clapped the other man on the shoulder. 'Thanks, Jack.'

The mechanic smiled at him, then smirked.

'And maybe you'll get some girls, once you're not a skinny little toothpick anymore!'

Mac's ears turned bright red.

'Jack!'

 _Well, it's not as if I'd mind…_

* * *

AN: Short, but hopefully sweet! (The chapters in this fic tend to be on the short side, though there's a few rather long ones coming up.)


	3. Mac Meets a Girl

AN: *ducks out from behind a large stack of tires* After the first two chapters of _Just Another Patriotic Guy_ , let's just say I don't think I'm going to win any prizes for being Most Beloved Author any time soon, but maybe this chapter will help, slightly? *returns to hiding behind the tires, attempting to use 2/3s of a Science degree to MacGyver my way out of this situation and failing*

* * *

It was a Saturday, and Mac had been working for Jack for about three months when she walked in. Jack was out getting some lunch, but he'd promised to bring Mac back his favourite sandwich. Actually, more like two of them. Jack thought he didn't eat enough.

He'd been finishing off a job when a tow truck pulled into the front of the garage, pulling a rather battered car behind it. As soon as the truck came to a stop, a young woman of about nineteen hopped out.

A voice in Mac's brain added: _a very pretty young woman._

Mac told the voice to shut up, and ears slightly pink under his hair, wiped the worst of the grease off his hands with a rag. He glanced down at his grease-stained MIT shirt, which, after over two months of working out with Jack, no longer hung loose on him. (In fact, he was starting to fill it out rather well.) He shrugged. Couldn't do much about the grease; he was a mechanic, after all. He walked over to her.

'Um, hi. Welcome to Dalton Auto Repair. I'm Mac. What can I do for you today?'

Mentally, he kicked himself for sounding like a drone reading off a customer-service script.

The girl looked ruefully at the car, then back at him.

'I had a car accident.'

Mac immediately looked her up and down concernedly. She didn't seem hurt…

'Are you alright?'

She smiled at him, and nodded.

'Oh, yeah, I'm fine, thanks. It's just my car…' She glanced over at it again. It was really in very, very bad shape. It was a bit of a miracle that she was unharmed. 'Well…it's seen better days.' She looked up at him imploringly. 'Do you think you can fix it?'

 _Well, it's going to be a challenge._

 _I do like a challenge._

He nodded.

'Yeah, I think I can.' He jerked his head in the direction of Jack's office. 'Come into the office and we'll sort out some paperwork, and then I'll get right to work.'

She smiled gratefully up at him as he led her into the back.

'Thanks so much, Mac.' She paused for a moment. 'Oh, where are my manners? I'm Nikki.'

* * *

'So you study engineering at MIT, and you can fix cars _and_ speak Mandarin?' Nikki shook her head in disbelief, then smiled at him. 'That's _very_ impressive.' Mac's ears got redder. The voice in his head started interjecting again. 'And you're still so young!' She looked him up and down rather appreciatively. He silently thanked Jack for talking him into going to the gym and wondered if his ears were giving off smoke; they certainly felt like it. '…You _are_ legal, right?'

Yup, his ears were definitely on fire.

'Yeah, I'm sixteen.'

Nikki's smile widened.

'Good.'

She finished signing the paperwork and handed it to Mac. He checked that it was all in order, and then handed her a business card.

'We're open 9 to 5 on weekdays and we open from 10 till 4 on Saturdays. We're closed on Sunday. Call that number when we're open, and either Jack, my boss, or I can give you an update on how your car is going.'

Nikki put the card in her pocket, and twirling her hair with her left hand, smiled at him in a way that made Mac's brain short-circuit.

'And if I want to call you after hours…'

Forget the ears, his whole face was probably on fire by now.

'Uh…' Mac fumbled for a piece of paper and a pen, and wrote down his phone number. 'Here.'

She smiled that smile at him again, and scribbled down her own digits and handed it to him.

'And here you go. Now it's a fair exchange.'

Mac glanced down at the piece of paper, then at Nikki, and blinked twice.

 _Did that just happen?_

She waggled her fingers at him, and with one last brain-frying smile, walked out of the office.

Mac stood there, stunned, for a good five minutes, until Jack got back with lunch.

The older man chuckled when he found him.

'So, who is she?'

* * *

 **To: Bozer**

 **I think I got hit on today…**

His best friend replied almost immediately.

 **SPILL, BRO! Tell me exactly what happened!**

 **This beautiful girl walked into the garage today and asked me to fix her car…and she asked for my number and gave me hers…**

 **GO MAC! You got game, bro! Told you girls like a man with grease under his nails! What's she like?**

 **Her name's Nikki. She's nineteen, and she goes to MIT too, doing computer science. She's a sophomore, and she's really smart and also really beautiful…**


	4. Mac Gets Noticed

Several other students looked jealously at the small crowd gathered around Mac's stall at the Annual MIT Undergraduate Engineering Showcase.

The seventeen-year-old, too engrossed in telling the group of people before him about his robot (the group included Professor Emeritus Orlov, who was a legend among the engineering students), didn't really notice.

'…it is designed to provide a safe, stable means of both transporting objects and moving them.' He opened up a small compartment in the base of the robot. 'This utilizes a gyroscope to maintain stability over rocky terrain, as does the arm.' He pointed at the crane-like arm that ended in what looked like a human hand, extending from the base of the robot. 'The hydraulics renders the arm and the hand extremely strong, and the opposable 'thumb' on the hand improves grip and dexterity…'

'What are the potential applications of this technology?'

'Well, it could be used for disaster relief, such as after earthquakes or mine collapses, to safely locate, deliver supplies to and free trapped people. It also has potential applications in bomb disposal….'

'What's the power source?'

'It operates on a battery. The charger that I have here is a solar charger, which I selected due to its sustainable and green nature, as well as the portability. There's no need to have access to the electrical grid to charge the robot. However, the battery could, in theory, be charged like any other battery using, say, electricity from the grid or a diesel generator…'

After his little spiel, as the crowd dispersed, looking rather impressed, a dark-haired woman in her late thirties or early forties, slim and serious, hair pulled back into a bun, approached Mac.

She took a copy of his resume from the stack on the front of his table that he'd been instructed to bring, and examined it. Her face gave nothing away.

'This is your second year at MIT, correct?'

Mac nodded.

'Yes, ma'am.'

'When are you graduating?'

Somewhat surprised by the question, Mac replied. 'Uh, if everything goes to plan, at the end of the next academic year, ma'am.'

The woman gave him a small smile, and handed him a business card.

'Just Thornton will do. I'm Patricia Thornton, with the Phoenix Foundation. We'll be in touch.'

She strode off, quickly disappearing into the crowd, leaving Mac holding the business card.

 **Patricia Thornton**

 **Director**

 **The Phoenix Foundation**

Mac had heard of the Phoenix Foundation. They were a well-known and well-respected government think-tank, though somewhat mysterious, as they dealt in national security and defence. They recruited the best of the best, and to catch the eye of the Director of all people…

He pocketed the business card.

No time to think about that now. Another crowd had gathered around his stall again.

'Hi, I'm Mac. My robot is designed to…'

* * *

AN: The Annual MIT Undergraduate Engineering Showcase is fictional, to the best of my knowledge.


	5. Mac Has an Amazing Best Friend

AN: A little early because I've got to go into the lab early tomorrow morning, so don't have time to post it then. This is a bit of a filler-type chapter, but stuff starts picking up soon; the latter part of this fic is much better than the start, methinks.

This entire fic was completed before 1.12, Screwdriver, and all of my _MacGyver_ fics (including a half-finished one-shot series in which Bozer tells his Tumblr followers about his roomie's crazy habits, such as making a hot tub out of a kiddie pool and a vacuum cleaner, going on science!benders and making a helicopter from a blender) only reference canon up until 1.11, Scissors, except _Permutations._

* * *

'Morning, bro!'

Mac, hair mussed from sleep, smiled up at his best friend and roommate as Bozer placed a large plate of waffles in front of him.

'Thanks, Bozer.'

After their first year at MIT and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt for short) respectively, Mac and Bozer had decided to move out of their dorms, and move in to an apartment together. Although they now had a longer commute and higher rent, they were also able to spend more time together…and Mac got to take advantage of Bozer's great cooking.

'Anytime, bro.' The nineteen-year-old took a seat opposite Mac. 'So that's the plan for this fine Saturday?'

The blonde swallowed his mouthful of waffle before replying.

'I've got work this afternoon, and then I'm going out with Nikki tonight; she's finally finished that project, so she's emerging from her room at last.' Mac sounded very happy at that; his girlfriend of nearly a year had been consumed by her work for the past week, and he had barely seen her apart from dropping by her place once or twice with a delivery of coffee and pastries. She'd been very busy lately, in general, and didn't have much time to spend with him.

Bozer reached out and bumped fists with his best friend, then winked at him. 'I'll crash at Penny's tonight, then.'

Mac's ears reddened.

'That's not necessary…'

The older teen looked incredulously at him.

'Nope, _so_ necessary. I love you, man, and I'm happy for you, you've come such a long way since Darlene Martin, but I don't like being witness to you and your girl's shenanigans!'

Mac raised an eyebrow.

'Is that what they're calling it nowadays?' His reached out and clasped Bozer's shoulder. 'But thanks, man. I appreciate it.'

The two young men finished their waffles quickly in silence, eating with the eagerness typical of young males.

As he scarfed down his last waffle, Bozer glanced at his watch.

'Oh, gottta run! I'm late for filming; I said I'd be at Penny's in five!'

He grabbed his bag, and started quickly gathering the things he'd need.

Mac finished his last waffle and wiped his mouth.

'Say hi to Penny for me, Bozer.'

His best friend was now jamming on his shoes.

'Will do!' He opened the door and walked out, then poked his head back in. 'You and Nikki play safe, okay? Don't do anything I wouldn't do!'

Mac's ears instantly reddened.

'Bozer!'

His roommate just winked and closed the door.


	6. Mac Has a Terrible Day

AN: Here's where I think the story picks up steam; I'm really quite proud of all the chapters from this point onwards, I hope you like them too!

* * *

Mac smiled to himself as he walked up the stairs to Nikki's apartment, a bag of groceries in hand.

Like him and Bozer, his girlfriend lived off-campus (she'd moved out of her dorm at the end of last year), as despite being only twenty, she did freelance work in her spare time and made very good money. She'd probably get a job at Google when she graduated, at the rate she was going. She already had a reputation in the business, after all.

It was Friday and Mac was _supposed_ to be in class.

But today was his and Nikki's first anniversary. It was a special occasion, and he'd decided to skip class to make her dinner. He was no Bozer, but he wasn't a shabby cook (it was really just like doing a chem practical, after all, and his pancake-making toaster did make good pancakes, even if it did occasionally launch the batter onto the ceiling). She'd told him that she wouldn't be back home until seven that evening; she had a meeting with one of her freelance clients from three, and those always ran late. Really, really late. Her clients, while they paid well, were apparently very demanding. It was currently four, so he had plenty of time to make the surprise just perfect for her.

He let himself in with the key she'd given him.

Strangely enough, the lights were on.

 _She must have forgotten to turn them off before she left._

 _That's odd…_

There were _voices_ in the apartment.

Coming from the bedroom, specifically.

 _Maybe she also left her laptop on…_

Trying to ignore the unpleasant feeling in his stomach, Mac walked over to the slightly-ajar door of Nikki's room, as quietly as he could.

'…We're not going to be interrupted by your skinny dork of a boyfriend, are we?'

'No, he's in class now, and he never skips…'

'Happy three months, baby.'

That unpleasant feeling had spread to his heart. Not wanting to believe his ears, wanting this all to be a terrible misunderstanding, Mac peeked through the crack in the door.

What he saw shattered his heart.

He dropped the bag of groceries.

The sound alerted the occupants of the room (his now presumably _ex-_ girlfriend and an older guy that he recognized as having played intramural basketball as a senior last year for Nikki's dorm's team) to his presence.

Nikki's eyes widened as she took in the sight of him, shoulders slumped, a bag of spilled groceries at his feet.

Mac looked down, then at the guy in her bed, then at her.

'Was it all a lie?'

Then he turned tail and ran out of the apartment, not wanting her to see the tears in his eyes.

'Mac!'

* * *

 **To: Bozer**

 **Come home, please.**

The blonde-haired teen closed the text to his best friend as he slumped down onto their couch. He opened up his contacts, and deleted Nikki's number, then blocked it for good measure, ignoring the texts that she'd been frantically sending him for several minutes now.

Unfortunately, that did not ease the ache in his chest.

He got up and stormed into his room, coming back with a box of photos and assorted picture frames.

Bozer and his engineering buddies liked to tease him for dressing like a grandpa and printing out his photos in hard-copy like one too.

Well, hard-copy photos had an unexpected benefit…

Mac shoved some of the photos of his ex-girlfriend into the blender and pressed the start button. He watched with savage satisfaction as they were torn to shreds.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Bozer came home to a sobbing roommate, standing at the kitchen bench in front of a broken blender, mutilated shreds of photos all around him.

'Mac…what happened?'

The younger teen rubbed his eyes and gestured at the blender.

'I'll fix it tomorrow, Bozer. I promise.'

Bozer walked over and put an arm around his best friend.

'Bro, I don't care about the blender!' He glanced at the tears rolling down Mac's cheeks and the shredded photos of Nikki and Mac surrounding them and his heart sunk. What had that girl done to his best friend? 'Did something happen with Nikki?'

Mac picked up a handful of shredded photos, and tossed them at the wall.

'She cheated on me.' Another sob. 'And lied to me. For _three months._ '

Squashing down the righteous fury he felt (he was _so_ going to break her for breaking his best friend's heart), Bozer pulled him into a tight hug.

'I am so, so sorry, bro.'

Mac's response was muffled by the fact that his head was buried in Bozer's shoulder, but the older teen heard it nonetheless, and his heart broke a little more for his best friend.

'I love her. And she knew that. I love her and…'

Bozer didn't know what to say in response, so just rubbed his roommate's back and let him cry.

All he could do was be there for him.

* * *

Jack didn't open his garage until 10 on Saturdays, but sometimes he would come in early to work on one of the jobs, particularly if he had a backlog, or to work on a personal project of his own.

A while back, he'd given Mac a key, so the kid could come and go whenever he wished.

Usually, being a teenager with a girlfriend, friends and more than a full load of classes, Mac didn't come in early on Saturdays.

But today, when Jack arrived at the garage, the lights were on and there were distinct clanking sounds.

Pushing down the little thrill of fear (six years out of the Army and sometimes it was like he was still in Afghanistan), knowing that it had to be Mac, he stepped into the work area.

The kid looked like he hadn't slept a wink. He was dishevelled, hair sticking up all over the place, and pale. He was glaring at the auto parts in front of him as if they'd personally insulted both him and his mother.

Jack's heart sunk all the way into his feet. Yesterday, he'd been so full of life, so excited and happy for his and Nikki's anniversary. And today…

'You know, brother, they're not going to grow legs and walk themselves into place if you keep looking at them like that.'

Mac threw the wrench he was holding down in frustration. He looked around the garage, then down at his knees.

'She cheated on me, Jack.'

His voice was flat and toneless. Heartbroken.

 _How dare she!_ Mac was a good kid, a great kid. Growing up into a great man. Yet, he maintained a sense of idealism, of innocence, of optimism. An innate goodness that made him so easy to love and so hard to be mad at. How dare that girl hurt him!

Jack tamped down the anger that he felt coursing through him, channelling the protectiveness he felt for the younger man into comfort instead. Right now, Mac needed that more. He walked over and helped the despondent teen up.

'Come here, brother.' Jack pulled him into a tight hug. 'Let's go get some breakfast at that diner you like. My treat.'

Mac let out a long sigh.

'Thanks, Jack.'

* * *

Jack watched as Mac played with one of the paperclips he always carried in his pockets, not touching his breakfast. He watched as a heart, cracked into two pieces with jagged edges, took shape.

The mechanic pulled out his phone under the table, and brought up a phone number he'd never had the need to use before.

 **To: Wilt Bozer (Mac's Roommate)**

 **It's Jack.**

 **He's safe, I found him, but he's not okay.**

* * *

AN: Borderline Nikki-bashing, I think- sorry!- I have no excuses for her in this story. And yes, sad Mac whump- I'm also sorry for that! For a slightly more optimistic/slightly happier chapter, check out the latest chapter of _Just Another Patriotic Guy._


	7. Mac is Subjected to an Intervention

AN: In which teenage Mac deals with a very quintessentially teenage problem.

* * *

 **To: Jack Dalton**

 **Hey, man, is Mac at the garage? He was supposed to be back 30 minutes ago for dinner, but he hasn't showed…**

Bozer's phone chimed with a reply a minute later.

 **Kid left about an hour and a half ago, said he'd hit the gym for a bit, then go home.**

Jack didn't write that Mac was almost certainly still at the gym, but he didn't need to.

This was the third time in the last week and a half that Mac had been late for dinner in favour of hitting the weights. (Which, as Jack, the trainers at the gym, and even Bozer had repeatedly told him, was not something he should overdo, since he was still growing and all.)

Bozer glanced over at Penny, whom he'd invited over for dinner in the hopes that she might be able to get through to Mac.

The young woman sighed.

'Again?'

Bozer nodded sadly.

'Again.'

'She really did a number on him, didn't she?'

Bozer could only nod sadly.

At that moment, the front door flung open, and Mac stalked in. He paused when he noticed Penny.

'Oh, hey, Penny. Sorry I'm late for dinner. I'll just go and get changed and I'll be right out, okay?'

The words were all Mac, but the tone was off.

The blonde teen walked past his two friends and into his room.

Bozer stood, intending to talk some sense into his best friend (he _had_ to intervene, this had gone too far), but Penny held up a hand to forestall him.

'Let me get this one, Bozer.'

He paused for a moment, then nodded, heading to the kitchen to try and give them a modicum of privacy. Penny was Mac's ex-girlfriend, after all. First girlfriend, first kiss…maybe she could get through to him.

Penny stood and knocked on Mac's door.

'Mac, are you decent?'

There was no reply.

'Angus!'

The door flung open.

A sullen Mac stood in the doorway, still fully dressed.

'If you're calling me that, it must be bad.'

With a sigh, he moved aside and let her into his room. Penny sat down on his desk chair, and Mac plonked himself down on his bed.

'You can't keep doing this, Mac. Spending so much time working out, it's not good for you…'

Mac rolled his eyes.

'Exercise is good for you.' At Penny's raised eyebrow, the _but not too much_ implicit in her expression, he sighed. 'It helps.' He looked away for a moment. 'I'm sick of being a skinny dork.'

She was so going to kill that girl for doing this to her friend.

'You're not a skinny dork, Mac.'

The blonde looked down at his feet.

'I get excited about weird things and I _still_ look like a toothpick.'

Penny got up and walked over to the side of the bed, standing right in front of her friend. She jabbed the air in front of him with her index finger.

'Firstly, _trust me,_ you don't look like a toothpick. What you're doing with Jack? The results are totally visible. Secondly, yes, you get excited about weird things, but so do a lot of people. Everyone, probably. Weird is really subjective.' Mac opened his mouth to respond. 'Yeah, I know, there's a level of socially-acceptable weirdness, and a level of not-socially-acceptable weirdness. But Angus, you go to MIT. You're seventeen, and you're going to graduate next year. That level of genius pretty much always brings with it a good dose of weird, and everyone around you that matters is either also weird and/or understands and loves your weirdness. If they don't, then they're not worth your time. And there's nothing really wrong with being a skinny dork, you know.' Penny smiled wryly. 'I liked you very much when you were a skinny, awkward fifteen-year-old, you know.'

Mac gave a snort of laughter.

'I always wondered why.'

 _Darlene Martin certainly didn't like high school me. Neither did pretty much every other girl in school._

With a frown, Penny poked the upper left side of his chest rather hard.

'Because of what's in there, Mac.' He looked somewhat sceptical, and Penny cursed Nikki again. Damn her for making him think that a good, kind, loving heart wasn't enough. 'Remember when you tricked out my car for my seventeenth birthday? I was so happy-'

'-That wasn't just me, everyone helped out. It was a team effort-'

Penny poked his chest again. Harder. 'And there is your proof! You've got a good heart, Mac. The best.' He was quiet for a moment, lost in thought, then he smiled a wan smile up at her. Penny smiled back, then smirked. 'And hey, you were pretty cute. Some girls like lanky, you know.' That earned her a half-laugh. Penny sat down on the bed next to him. 'If you need someone to talk to, I've got expertise-'

'Penny, you're a theatre major.'

'With a minor in psychology!'

Mac shook his head with a smile. Friendship plus attraction didn't always lead to a great relationship. He and Penny hadn't been a good match, romantically, but at least they'd realized that soon enough to save their friendship. He was beginning to realize that break-ups with no hard feelings in which 'we'll still be friends' actually happened were very rare indeed.

Not many ex-girlfriends you could still call a friend, after all.

He was lucky to have her.

'Thanks, Penny.'

She reached over and hugged him.

'That's what friends are for, Mac.'


	8. Mac Makes a New Friend

AN: Can you guess who the new friend is?

My reaction to Large Blade (which contains SPOILERS) is at the end of this chapter.

* * *

'Damn it!'

Jack glared at the computer in front of him. Computer problems. Again. He was trying to modernize the way he ran his accounts and the like, but not only was he having trouble with that, it seemed that the damn machine would not cooperate with him.

Now, cars he could fix, but computers? Not his area.

'Hey, Mac? How much do you know about computers?'

The teen walked into the office and glanced at the screen, which was displaying several angry messages.

'Hardware problems, I can fix, no problem. Software like that? That's beyond me.'

'Aren't you young people supposed to be good at this sort of stuff?'

Mac snorted.

'At the age when most other kids were learning to use their computers, I was taking mine apart to see how it worked.' He smiled wryly. 'I never quite got it.'

Jack thumped his hand down on the keyboard. Another error message, flashing angrily, popped up.

He thought for a moment. Who did he know who was good with computers?

Then it hit him.

A while back, he'd dated a woman, Diane. Her daughter, Riley, who'd be about seventeen now, was sent to juvie for hacking not long after they broke up. Jack had been quite fond of the girl; she was a good kid with her heart in the right place.

Jack picked up his keys.

'You got class, brother?'

Mac shook his head.

'I only had morning classes today.'

'Well, come on, then!'

Jack got up and walked out to his car, Mac trailing behind him.

'Where are we going?'

Jack grinned.

'We're going recruiting.'

* * *

They pulled up in front of a local high school just as students were dismissed for the day.

Mac turned to Jack.

'If you're trying to set me up…'

Jack patted his shoulder.

'Relax, brother. I know you're not ready.'

Mac shook his head.

'It's not that. I'm not still in love with Nikki!' He looked away, every bit the sullen teen. 'It's just none of your business, that's all.'

Jack indicated a girl of about Mac's age, seventeen, with curly dark hair and a slim figure, with a nod of his head. She was walking out of the school

'We're here for her.' At Mac's sharp glance, he put his hands up in supplication. 'I'm not trying to set you up with her. I swear. She's my ex's daughter, I've known her since she was twelve, so definitely off-limits.' Mac looked placated. 'Name's Riley Davis. She's real good with computers, I thought she might be able to help us with our computer issues.'

'And you know this _how_?'

 _Honestly, I wouldn't exactly tell my mom's boyfriend all about my hobbies. Even if he was Jack._

The mechanic shrugged casually.

'Oh, she got sent to juvie for hacking not long after Diane and I broke up.' At Mac's raised eyebrow, Jack patted his shoulder. 'Don't worry, she's a good kid.'

Unfortunately, as they spoke, said good kid had managed to get herself into a fight with a couple of other girls. An older man, probably the principal, stalked over.

Jack sighed in exasperation, got out of the car, and motioned for Mac to do the same.

'Just follow my lead and play along, brother.'

* * *

Jack approached the principal.

'Good afternoon, sir.' He shot Riley a significant look. The girl just rolled her eyes. 'Is Riley in trouble?'

The principal glanced at Riley, then at Jack.

'And you are?'

'Oh, sorry, didn't introduce myself.' Jack held out a hand for the other man to shake. 'I'm Jack Dalton, her mother's partner.' He indicated Mac. 'This is my kid brother, Angus.'

Slightly dumbfounded, Mac waved awkwardly at the principal.

'Hi.'

The principal shook Jack's hand hesitantly, and gave Riley a questioning look.

'Yeah, he's my mom's boyfriend. Guess he got stuck with pick-up duty today.'

Jack cleared his throat.

'So, is Riley in trouble, sir? Because we've got to get going; grocery shopping to do, I've got to take Angus to his chess tournament, and her mom's sick…'

The principal, understandably, looked rather sceptical, but he let them go without complaint.

* * *

'Chess tournament? I don't even _play_ chess!' Mac crossed his arms. 'And I _hate_ being called Angus!'

'Hey, kid, it was all on the fly.' Jack turned to Riley, who was sitting in the back seat. 'Pretty good, eh, Riley?'

The girl just rolled her eyes.

'Can you just drop me off like a block away from here? I wanna get home.'

Jack watched her for a moment.

'You have a job, Riley?'

The teenager examined her nails.

'What do you think? I was in juvie until a couple of months ago.'

Jack was undeterred by her attitude.

'Well, would you like one?' He paused for a moment, waiting for the slight look of shock to disappear from the young woman's face. 'Mac and I have computer problems at the garage. Frankly, I'm not up to date with the latest tech, and I need someone to help me out, help me modernise my business.'

Riley snorted.

'And of all the people in the world, you'd pick me?'

The older man shrugged.

'You're a good kid, Riley. Promise me you'll stay out of fights, stay out of that blue hat stuff, and I'll trust you. The job's yours.'

'Black hat. The term's black hat.'

Silence followed Mac's comment. Jack and Riley both glanced at him, then turned back to one another.

Eventually, Riley responded, without the attitude in her voice.

'Even if it's for the right reasons?'

Jack turned his head to the side so she couldn't see his smile, then looked into her eyes.

'For the right reasons, I can probably be persuaded to let it slide.'

Riley nodded, and considered for a moment longer.

'Promise you won't tell my mom about the fight today?'

Jack smiled and shook his head.

'Like she'd speak to me anyway.'

Riley gave a snort of laughter.

'You could charm her into falling for you again, and you know that. Even though you just walked out on us.' There was a note of bitterness in her tone, and Jack decided then and there that they'd have to sit down and have a proper chat about what had happened. She paused for a moment. 'You've got a deal. I promise. You can trust me.'

Jack reached out and shook the teenage girl's hand.

'Welcome to the team, Riley.'

Mac, a spectator in the front seat, reached out and shook her hand with a smile.

 _Well, if Jack trusts her, I trust her._

* * *

Later that evening, Mac and Riley clinked their lemonade bottles together, laughing at Jack's expense.

They had become fast friends, quickly agreeing to gang up on the older man, who was now muttering about ungrateful kids.

'Yo, bros, how's it hanging at my fave garage today?'

Bozer strode in, as he often did after closing.

The nineteen-year-old spotted Riley and did a double-take.

'Oh, _hello_ , future girlfriend.'

Mac groaned. Riley looked at Bozer with an interesting expression on her face, a mixture of disdain, disbelief and amusement.

Jack glanced between the two, then stood to his full height.

'Riley, this is Bozer. Bozer, this is off-limits.'

* * *

AN: My personal favourite bit of this chapter is Jack's whole improv cover. You have no idea how proud I am of myself for coming up with that!

My reaction to Large Blade- I quite enjoyed the episode, in particular, the Mac/Jack/Riley/Bozer as family elements, and the Mac/Jack and Bozer/Riley interactions in the episode. It's definitely enough to keep me watching the show and it satisfies some of my needs for Team-as-Family after Screwdriver.

That being said, I have a bone to pick with it: The fact that absolutely no-one at any point in time questions any of the big twists that happened to them in Screwdriver. I mean, seriously, Mac and Jack spend quite a bit of time discussing, in their way, the Jack/Sarah issue, and they all talk about their new boss and Bozer even discusses the potential fall-out of Thornton being arrested for treason with Riley, yet no-one at any point even expresses something along the lines of 'I thought we knew her, she was our friend, we're still dealing with this'? Or the whole Nikki and her relationship with Mac thing? I know that it doesn't fit into the overall tone of the episode, but I'm sure they could have found some way to incorporate even a small mention of both, a la what they did with the Jack/Sarah relationship in this episode. It feels very strange and out of character to me that they don't raise any of these points in any way- they've surely still got to be reeling somewhat? (Having said that, given that the Jack/Sarah relationship turned out to be a big thing, but wasn't raised for ten episodes then became very important suddenly, maybe the season finale or something will raise it.)

In terms of Matilda Webber, I quite like her so far. I was worried at first that we were going to get replacement!Patty (given the whole Matty/Patty thing, and the fact that she has a history with Jack and I'm positive that there were hints of Jack/Thornton, I was kinda worried that we were going to essentially have everything about Thornton that they had planned transferred over to her), but I think that that looks like it's not going to happen, so I'm glad about that. I still like Patty a lot more and I still wish that everything went back to what it was before, but I suspect that I'll end up with similar feelings about her as I do Ellie Bishop in NCIS- I will always prefer Ziva, but I do like Bishop.

I also miss Mac's voiceovers- as you can probably tell from my work, I adore the voiceovers as a storytelling tool, and I also like how they give us insight into Mac's thoughts and character. But on the other hand, I do like science teacher!Mac and the reactions that everyone has to that.


	9. Mac Becomes a Star

_Now, Bozer's my best friend._

 _He's been my best friend since the fifth grade, when he broke Donnie Sandoz's nose for me._

 _He stuck with me all the way through junior high and high school, and a whole lot of incidents that occasionally involved the police._

 _So I always try to be supportive of him…_

* * *

Mac looked up from reading Bozer's latest script. Unusually, since he usually focused on film, this was a TV show script.

Also unusually, instead of the script calling for Mac to play a Chinese general ('You're the only guy I know who speaks Mandarin, bro!') or a green monster, the lead character was _actually_ one Angus MacGyver.

'So in your show, I graduate from MIT in two years, at the age of eighteen, then join the Army as an EOD tech, and now I do _a little bit of this and a little bit of that?_ I'm a government agent for some secretive organization…' He flipped back a page. 'The DXS, with Jack, who is ex- _CIA_ of all things, and _Nikki_ is my team's analyst?'

'I started writing it before, you know…'

As he continued reading, Mac made a face.

'We were never _that_ bad.'

Bozer snorted.

'Beg to differ, bro. Beg to differ.'

Mac flipped through a few more pages.

'Okay, so with the help of a Swiss Army knife, a few metal drinks trays, some _plaster dust_ and my _bowtie_ , I manage to steal a bioweapon, and get myself and Jack away from a bunch of angry bad guys with guns…and then Nikki gets held hostage, I give up the bioweapon in exchange for her…but we both get shot…and she dies…and well, at least you're still my overly-worried roommate…and wait, I've managed to keep my secret life a secret from you for _how long_?'

Mac looked at Bozer, disbelief and scepticism clear on his face.

'You were the one talking about that plaster trick when we were watching CSI-'

'-That guy really looks like Jack-'

Bozer continued his rant, ignoring his best friend's comment.

'-It's a TV show! _Suspend your disbelief_! It's important for the story and the development of the characters!'

Mac read a few more pages, eyebrow raised.

'Okay, so you've also managed to incorporate Riley, and Patricia Thornton? I've met her once, she just gave me her card at the Showcase...' Mac shook his head. 'And then it turns out that Nikki's not actually dead…and instead she's betrayed us and sold the bioweapon to an enemy of the USA…and _why am I hanging from a plane_? You _know_ I'm terrified of heights!'

'Hey, I've acknowledged that in the script!'

Mac shook his head and kept reading.

'Oh, of course, now the Phoenix Foundation is just _pretending_ to be a think-tank as a cover…Okay, glad to know that your thing for Riley has made it into the script…' He laughed. 'But you're actually managing to get her phone number, unlike in real life…one digit at a time…'

Bozer shrugged.

'Realism is very important, bro.'

Mac nodded, eyebrows raised.

' _Right..._ and seriously? Professor Orlov? And Professor Levkin? They are _not_ older Russian versions of me and Jack…Oh, God, you put _Cindy_ in here too? We went on _two dates_! Oh, really, _and_ Katarina? Seriously…I help a girl in Charlie's dorm out once, because her ex is harassing her, and you…'

Bozer jabbed a finger in Mac's chest.

'You made her _a Taser_ , from an electric beard trimmer, Mac. And she _did_ find out where you work and come to thank you in person. She was _totally_ into you…'

The blonde rolled his eyes.

'Damsel Syndrome, Bozer! It was just Damsel Syndrome!'

Mac glanced back down at the script.

'Stopping bullets with paper…cannons out of cleaning supplies and a statue…explosives out of sugar…sure, I know I've said that these are all possible in theory, but _all_ of these working in just one day? In pretty much one try? That seems terribly improbable…'

Bozer shook his fists at the ceiling.

'It's a TV show!' He turned to Mac. 'Besides, you rigged a hot tub on the roof using a kiddie pool and a vacuum cleaner!'

* * *

AN: Alternative title for this chapter: All the Meta Jokes.

Also, I've got some spare time at the moment, and I'd like to challenge myself and try my hand at writing prompts/requests- does anyone have any for me? (AU/canon-divergent ones, or ones that you're okay with ending up AU or canon-divergent might be better, since my history seems to show that I'm incapable of writing strictly canon…)


	10. Mac Gets an Offer

AN: To the Guest who pointed out the age of consent thing to me: I admit to not properly researching that when I wrote that chapter; I assumed that the age of consent was the same as the state of Australia in which I live. That was obviously, in hindsight, exceedingly stupid (sorry!), given that there are several legal differences between Australia and the US and the laws aren't consistent here. Proper consent is essential and age of consent laws must be respected! (That's why Nikki does have to ask if Mac is legal in that chapter- it was something I added in editing when I realized how problematic the whole chapter is without it, hence why I really didn't research it or think it through properly, which really isn't a good excuse, I know.) I'm sorry, I really am, and thanks for pointing it out.

However- a quick Google search tells me that the age of consent in Massachusetts is apparently 16? (That should be taken with a good pinch of salt, since the laws seem rather complicated, and aren't consistent across the USA, apparently. I am definitely no law student or lawyer!)

Regardless, Mac is certainly an emancipated minor. Given that his mother, grandfather (and assumedly other grandparents) are deceased and his father left him when he was 12, he'd have to be.

* * *

 _Remember how I got that business card at the Engineering Showcase?_

 _Well, months passed, and I heard nothing, so I assumed that nothing would come of it._

 _I was wrong._

* * *

'Hey, Riley, how was school?'

Mac tossed a bottle of lemonade at the other seventeen-year-old as she entered Dalton Auto Repair.

'It's school, Mac.' Riley plonked herself down on the steps leading to Jack's office, which she'd sort-of taken over. 'Not worth talking about.'

She opened her lemonade and drank. Mac turned his attention back to the car he was working on.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, during which Riley finished half her lemonade, she spoke up.

'Looking forward to hitting the gym later, though.' Jack had also convinced Riley to join the gym next door; trying to get her to channel some of her anger and frustration into exercise instead of getting into fights at school. They were getting along better, now. She took another swig of lemonade. 'A woman who works out there has kinda taken me under her wing. She's teaching me how to fight properly.'

At Mac's worried look, Riley gave him a reassuring smile.

'Which means no fighting at school, Mac, just at the gym.' Seemingly satisfied, he turned back to the car. She shook her head. 'You dress like a grandpa and you act like one too sometimes, you know.'

'There is nothing wrong with my dress sense.'

Riley scoffed.

'Keep telling yourself that, Mac.' She shrugged. 'Anyway, I like Thornton. She's tough and seemingly cold, but surprisingly nice.'

Mac nearly dropped the wrench he was holding. He stopped working on the car, and looked over at Riley.

'Patricia Thornton? Serious woman, dark hair?'

Riley nodded slowly.

'Yeah, why? Do you know her?'

Mac absent-mindedly rubbed his greasy hands on his pants.

'Sort of? She talked to me at an engineering showcase once.'

He paused for a moment.

 _Well, that might explain why she was in Bozer's script._

 _And why she was teaching Riley to fight in said script._

'Did you tell Bozer about her?'

The teenage girl looked even more befuddled.

'Yeah…'

Mac raised an eyebrow.

 _Maybe she actually does like him…_

 _Yeah, I know, I shouldn't be so surprised, Bozer's my best friend and a great guy, it's just…_

 _Well, you know._

Riley looked away for a moment, then finished off her lemonade.

'Don't you dare tell him…but he's growing on me.'

 _And that wasn't even the biggest surprise of the day._

* * *

Mac turned on his laptop and checked his email.

He was surprised to find, among the various newsletters, notices from professors and group assignment chatter, a very interesting email. An email from the Phoenix Foundation.

 _Dear Mr MacGyver,_

 _Apologies for the delay; as I'm sure you can appreciate, our recruiting processes are rather stringent and there were several necessary actions to take before we could send you this email._

 _We are aware that you still have over a year of college remaining, however, based on your record to date (Including and not limited to winning twelve science fairs, being a member of the winning team in the 2016 MIT Solar Car Contest and the 2016 MIT Engineering Hackathon and a 4.0 GPA to date, if your C in Biology is disregarded.) and abilities (Not only in science-related matters, but also other fields. Your ability to speak both Mandarin and Russian is considered to be distinctly advantageous by us.), we would like to extend to you an offer to join the Phoenix Foundation upon graduation._

 _We understand that this is quite an undertaking and not an offer to be accepted lightly, and to that end, we would like to invite you to visit our headquarters to be briefed on this offer. As you would surely appreciate, this would include delicate information that we do not wish to share with you over email._

 _Please reply back as soon as possible with dates that would be convenient for you. We anticipate that the briefing will not exceed five hours, however, we ask that you block out the entire day for it, just to be safe._

 _We await your reply,_

 _Sincerely,_

 _Patricia Thornton_

 _Director_

 _The Phoenix Foundation_

The amount of information they had on him, the extent to which they seemed to have been tracking him, was pretty significant.

He was quite sure that, being a government national security think-tank and all, they had a whole lot more on him that they hadn't shared in the email.

It was kind of disturbing to have one's privacy violated in such a way…but then again, he did understand why they had to do that.

And this was such an opportunity…

 _My brain's always been my biggest asset._

 _And to get the chance to use it to help people, to defend people, to do good…_

 _That is what I've always wanted to do, after all._

* * *

AN: I'm aware that it might not be canon that Mac knows Russian in the 2016 reboot (though he apparently did know Russian in the original series)- I originally thought it was when I wrote this, but then I re-watched Wire Cutter, and it seems that he can't read Cyrillic (though, from what I hear from friends who learn Russian, that doesn't necessarily mean he wouldn't speak Russian). This is obviously not a very important detail at all, but I'm declaring that in this AU, Mac can speak Russian


	11. Mac Goes Home

'All packed and ready to go for tomorrow, brother?'

Mac nodded, grabbing another piece of pizza. He, Jack, Riley and Bozer were digging in to pizza at his and Bozer's place, hanging out before his trip back home to Mission City tomorrow during his Spring Break.

Bozer shook his head.

'I can't believe Mr Ericson finally talked you into heading home to talk to his class. He's been asking you since we left for college, bro!' Bozer smirked. 'You should look up Darlene Martin, see what she's up to! I heard she stayed pretty local, might be able to stop by and-'

'Darlene? You never mentioned Darlene.'

Jack looked far too interested for Mac's peace of mind.

The blonde threw his head back onto the top of the couch, groaning around his mouthful of pizza.

Bozer's grin grew larger.

'Oh, she was Mac's chem lab partner in our Junior year. Prettiest girl in the school. Mac had a huge crush on her! Huge!'

Swallowing his mouthful of pizza, Mac continued the story.

'I lost a bet to Bozer and I had to ask her to Prom.'

Riley, sipping her lemonade, turned to Bozer, almost surprised.

'You helped Mac get a Prom date?'

'Well…uh, not exactly. She shot Mac down cold.'

The teen in question just grabbed another bottle of lemonade.

'I didn't want to go to Prom anyway. There was a livestream of a manned Soyuz launch to the ISS that I wanted to watch-'

'-wait, so you lost a bet and had to ask a hot girl to Prom? Your high school experience was very different from mine, kid.'

Riley quirked an eyebrow at Mac.

'I don't know about that, old man. Penny, this Darlene, sounds like he got around a bit in high school!'

Mac almost spit out his mouthful of lemonade at Riley's words.

' _I did not_! I had a crush on _two_ girls in high school! _Two_! Darlene, and then Penny, and that was it! I didn't even _notice_ girls until halfway through my Junior year!' At Jack's incredulous look, he continued. 'I was _fourteen_ for most of Junior year! And all these other things were holding my interest; learning Mandarin, working on science fair projects, nuclear fusion, Hückel theory…'

Jack shook his head, and jogged Mac with his elbow.

'Nerd.'

'Mac's always been a Boy Scout.'

The blonde shook his head at his best friend.

'I was a _terrible_ Boy Scout, Bozer. Lasted all of six months. And are you forgetting all the incidents? A few of them involved the police...'

It was Jack and Riley's turn to do a spit-take.

' _What_?'

' _You_ got in trouble with the police?'

Mac sighed.

 _Best to get this over with, or they'll never leave me alone. Like ripping off a Band-Aid._

'You ever wonder how or why I learned to pick locks?' Mac's skill at doing so, using only paperclips or bobby pins, had come in handy at the garage for when they accidentally locked car keys in a car, or, memorably, once locked themselves out of the whole shop. 'I learned so I could break into Mission City Junior High School's labs to do experiments after hours.'

'And you can't forget the Football Field Incident!'

Jack and Riley's heads swivelled quickly in Bozer's direction. Mac glared at him.

'We pinky-swore never to talk about that, Bozer!'

His three friends just stared at him until he cracked.

'Fine. Tell them.'

He made a gestured of defeat.

'So, Mission City Junior High used to have a football stadium.' Bozer paused for dramatic effect. 'Until Mac and I burnt it down.'

Jack and Riley looked from Bozer to Mac and back again.

'A fire?'

Mac looked somewhat sheepish.

'More like a small nuclear meltdown.'

The mechanic and the hacker stared at him with wide eyes.

Mac shook his head ruefully.

'I'm going to have to avoid Mr Wilson the whole trip; he still hasn't forgiven me, apparently.'

Bozer reached out and clapped him on the back.

'Dude's got to get over it; it's been like five years.' That seemed to remind him of something, because he continued. 'Oh, and make sure you stay on the right side of the law this time; I heard Donnie Sandoz is a police recruit now.'

Mac just groaned again, and downed the rest of his lemonade.

'Great.'

Jack and Riley simply looked at Bozer with inquiring expressions.

'Oh, he used to be really mean to Mac back in the day.' Bozer smiled, lost in a fond memory. 'Actually, we became friends back in the fifth grade because of him. He was beating up Mac, so I broke his nose. Got suspended for two weeks, but Mac came over every day to do my homework, and we've been best friends ever since.'

Mac reached out and fist-bumped Bozer, smiling despite himself.

Riley smiled slowly at Bozer and leaned a little closer to him. Jack slid over and put an arm around the younger man.

'So, got any other stories about young Angus MacGyver here?'

'We'd love to hear them…'

Helping himself to the rest of the pizza while his friends were distracted, Mac smiled and shook his head.

 _That's family._

 _Can't live with them, can't live without them._

* * *

Later that night, as Mac brushed his teeth, his roommate popped his head into the bathroom.

'Hey, bro, you going to pop by the lab while you're there?'

Mac smiled as best as he could around his toothbrush, and gave Bozer a thumbs up.

'Awesome.' Bozer reached out and clapped him on the back. 'Those were good times, bro. Good times.'

* * *

'Thanks for driving me to the airport, Jack.'

'Anytime, brother, anytime.'

The two sat in silence, except for the sound of Jack's driving tunes (country, which Mac hated) playing on the radio.

It was Jack who spoke first.

'You haven't been home since you left for college, have you?'

Mac, after a moment, nodded.

'No, I haven't.'

Jack looked sympathetically at the younger man.

'Bad memories?'

Mac looked out the window.

'No, not really.' He stared at the passing traffic for a while. 'I've got lots of good memories of the place. Bozer, Penny, Mr Ericson, my grandfather, my dad, before…' He paused and swallowed. 'But it's also where all my memories of my mom are, and where I lost her…' He looked down. 'I feel guilty, feeling happy there.'

Jack nodded slowly.

'The first car I fixed up? My old man and I fixed her up together. When he died, I couldn't bear to drive her anymore.' Jack shook his head, lost in the memory. 'Then, one day, I swear I heard him tell me that we didn't work our asses off to fix her up, only for me to just let her sit in the garage, so I took her for spin…' He smiled. 'I swear, the old man was riding shotgun, I felt so happy…' He glanced over at Mac. 'Don't ever feel guilty about feeling happy, brother. Our loved ones would never want us to feel guilty about that.'

Mac nodded slowly, then a small smile spread across his face.

'Thanks, Jack.'

* * *

Mac smiled as Mr Ericson dismissed the 8th grade science class.

His little talk had gone rather well, all up, he thought. Sure, it'd been a bit awkward at the start, but the kids (though, he was only about three years' older than most of them) had warmed up to him once he'd started talking about blowing things up. And the elephant's toothpaste was not only a great example of a very rapid chemical reaction, it was also very, very cool (though it was exothermic!) and always a hit.

And to top it all off, a girl in the class had asked some truly impressive and interesting questions.

Mr Ericson (he would never be able to stop thinking of him as that, no matter how old he got), walked over to him, a grin on his face.

'You're a natural, Mac. You might want to consider pursuing teaching…'

All the students filed out, except for the girl who'd asked him about that V4 engine he'd made all those years ago. Mac watched as she got a robot out of the back room where Mr Ericson had let him keep some of his projects, and started tinkering with it.

Mr Ericson smiled fondly, and indicated the girl with a nod of his head.

'That's Valerie Lawson. Just twelve years old. Devours everything I throw at her; physics, chemistry, biology. She's the brightest student I've had…well, since you.' Mr Ericson sighed, and leaned closer to Mac. 'I've been concerned about her, of late. She lost her mom a while back, and a couple of months ago, her grades started slipping.'

Mac glanced over at the girl, sharing his old teacher's concern.

'Just like mine did when my dad left.'

The older man nodded.

'She's been quiet, too. Just then, talking to you? That was the most I've heard her speak for weeks.'

Mac took a step towards the girl he saw so much of himself in, then hesitated. Mr Ericson motioned for him to go on, so he took a seat at the bench she was working at.

'Where'd you get the processors?'

* * *

Mac glanced at the clock. It was now almost four.

'Do you need to get home, Valerie?'

He already knew the answer, but this was probably the best way to get her to open up.

The girl shook her head.

'No.' She glanced up at him, and apparently decided that it was okay to open up to him. 'My dad's always at work. He's not going to be home until late.' She looked down and played with the heart necklace around her neck. 'I don't have my mom anymore.'

She started working on her robot again. Mac reached over to give her a hand.

'I miss my mom too. She passed away when I was five.'

Valerie nodded slowly, playing with her necklace again.

The teenager watched the young girl, sad and lonely and brilliant. So much like him at that age. Lonelier, even. She didn't even seem to have someone like Bozer.

 _Then, it hit me._

'Valerie, there's something I'd like to show you.' She looked up at him, curious. 'My safe space, my special place, from when I was your age. My lab. Well, me and my best friend's lab.' The girl gave a small smile, eyes lighting up. Mac grinned back at her, and got up. 'I'll go ask Mr Ericson to give us a lift.'

* * *

Mac led Valerie through the trees, towards the treehouse. Mr Ericson had promised that he'd come by and pick them up later, reminding Mac to call him to come get them before dark.

He reached out and tested the strength of the rope hanging from the trapdoor at the bottom of the treehouse. It was still good. He turned to the twelve-year-old.

'Can you climb a rope?'

Valerie made a face, but nodded.

'Yeah, we have to do it in P.E class. I hate it, but I can do it.'

And she could. He gave her a hand, but she did it mostly on her own, and soon, both of them were in the treehouse. Mac looked around for a moment, lost in the memories. It was dusty and covered in cobwebs, but it was exactly as he and Bozer had left it. Right down to that old photo on the wall.

He looked over at Valerie, who was similarly engrossed. Mac grinned down at her.

'Welcome to my lab. My best friend, Bozer, and I made this when we were in junior high.' Mac reached out and grabbed the telescope he'd made years ago, and looked down it. 'It was the place I felt safest for years.' He handed Valerie the telescope. 'I think it still works. Watch out for spiders, though.'

The girl took the telescope with a smile and peered through it out the window. They sat there in silence for a while, Mac tidying up and Valerie watching the world through the telescope.

Eventually, Valerie put down the telescope and looked over at him, then off into the distance.

'Were the other kids at school mean to you, too? I mean, you seem a lot cooler than me, and you're pretty big now, so I can't imagine Darren Martin shoving you into a locker or Dana Sandoz spreading nasty rumours about you, but…well, you can't always have been big…'

Mac laughed wryly.

'Oh, trust me, some kids used to bully me too. I don't think anyone thought I was cool, except maybe Bozer and a couple of my other friends.' He crouched down next to Valerie, and put a hand on her shoulder, looking into her eyes. 'But it gets better, I promise. You're not going to be in junior high or high school forever. There's a whole world outside of Mission City, and some really great places and people out there.' He pulled out his phone and brought up some pictures. 'I've got really awesome friends at MIT.' He showed her a photo of him and Charlie and the rest of their Solar Car Competition team. 'These are some of my friends. They're my engineering buddies, and this is our solar-powered car...'

They sat there, looking at photos on his phone, him telling her stories, for a while.

'There's a lot of really, really clever people in my classes. Lots. One day, you're not going to feel like you're from another planet.'

Valerie's smile widened with hope.

'There'll be people who think like me, when I go to college?'

Mac nodded.

'Some, yes. But there'll be lots of other very intelligent people, who don't quite think in the same way, but will understand what you're thinking anyway. Usually.'

Valerie laughed a little at his last comment. She bit her lip.

'Will there be mean people there?'

Unwittingly, Mac thought of Nikki. He pushed the thought aside and spoke carefully.

'Just like everywhere else, there will be some mean people. But most people are nice, like everywhere else.' Valerie didn't look convinced. He didn't blame her. Most kids weren't all that nice when he was her age either. 'Remember what I said about it getting better? Well, partly it's because people generally get a lot nicer, or at least less mean, when they get older. Growing up tends to do that.'

Valerie nodded, seemingly convinced.

'And there'll be other people my age there, right? And other girls, too?'

Mac smiled wryly at her questions. He couldn't blame her; all of his engineering buddies did happen to be guys…

'Yeah, there'll be other people your age. You'll be sixteen when you go to college, right?' She nodded. 'I was sixteen too. I don't know everyone at MIT, but there's a guy in my physics class who's the same age as me, and there was a girl in my chem lab group who was also sixteen last year. And there's a guy studying maths who is actually even younger than me.' He paused for a moment. 'And there's definitely girls at MIT. Not so many as there are boys, I think, but I think it's getting better all the time.' He gathered his thoughts for a moment. 'And you know, anyone who thinks that girls can't do maths or science as well as boys is wrong. Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin, Vera Rubin, Ada Lovelace…' He thought of Riley for a moment. 'You know, one of my closest friends is seventeen and still in high school, but she can hack military-grade encryption?'

That brought a smile to the girl's face.

'Cool! Illegal…but cool. She sounds pretty awesome.'

Mac smiled.

'Oh, yeah. She definitely is.'

Looking out the window, Mac noticed the sun was getting low in the sky. He pulled out his phone and texted Mr Ericson.

'Anyway, we have to go soon.' Valerie's face fell. Mac reached over and pulled the photo of him and Bozer off the wall. 'But you can come back, anytime you want.' Valerie looked up at him, eyes wide with disbelief. 'The lab? It's yours now.' Her face broke into a full-on grin. 'But you have to promise me three things. One, you will come here often.' She nodded eagerly. His voice softened and grew more serious. 'Two, remind your dad that you're there for him. I know he's pushing you away; push back.' She played with her necklace. 'I know you miss your mom, but remember, he lost her too. But at least you still have each other. Don't forget that.' She kept playing with her necklace, but nodded solemnly. 'Three, keep in touch.' Mac wrote down his phone number and email address on the back of the photo and handed it to her. 'If you've ever got any questions, or if you just want to talk, that's how you can reach me.' He paused for a moment. 'Email might be better; easier to send long messages or pictures that way. And then my phone won't go off in class.'

Smiling, Valerie tucked the photo into her pocket.

'I promise.' She stood there for a moment, then flung her arms around him. Mac hugged her back gently. 'Thanks, Mac. Thanks so much.'

'You're very welcome.' He opened up the trapdoor. 'Now, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty hungry. And since Mr Ericson's been so kind to drive us around all afternoon, I think I owe him a burger and a milkshake. How about we stop by Burger Nirvana?'

She just grinned up at him.

 _Everybody loves Burger Nirvana._

* * *

A couple of days later, Mac walked back into his bedroom in his and Bozer's apartment, having just returned from Mission City.

He turned on his laptop and opened up his email.

Right there was an email from Valerie.

 _Hi Mac,_

 _I'm trying to build a hydrogen fuel cell, but I'm having a bit of trouble with the electrodes/catalyst. I know you can use Rhodium or Palladium or Platinum, but they're kind of out of my budget. What do you think about using nichrome wire, since Nickel's in the same group as Palladium and Platinum and nichrome's pretty corrosion-resistant?_

 _Also, did you really cause a small nuclear meltdown when you were my age? Dana Sandoz has been telling everyone that her older brother swore you did since your visit…_

 _And…I took your advice. About my dad. We talked a bit, and, well, tomorrow he's taking me to the garage and we're going to work on restoring this old car he bought years and years ago. I think it's going to be fun!_

 _Valerie_

Smiling, he sat down to reply.

 _Hi Valerie,_

 _I've never tried that myself, but…_

* * *

AN: Valerie's experience with school/bullying does not reflect, and is not meant to reflect, everyone's experience. A decent amount of it is taken from personal experience. (I'm fine, don't worry, high school was overall a good experience for me, but there were some nasty experiences along the way.)


	12. Mac is a Star, Again

AN: This chapter is dedicated to the wonderful helloyesimhere, because it was inspired by a conversation I had with her a while ago.

* * *

Bozer flicked through the channels on his and Mac's TV. It was Friday night and he had nothing to do (aside from a couple of assignments, but it _was_ Friday night).The apartment was quiet; Mac was out with his engineering buddies working on their solar car for the competition. They were hoping to go for two wins from two starts.

He sighed and settled on a comedy about a couple with a combined 18 children. At least _Yours, Mine and Ours_ was amusing and rather light-hearted.

As he watched, he stifled a yawn. Mac had said he'd be back late, and not to wait up for him, but Bozer was determined to do so anyway, if only to make sure his roommate actually came home and slept. Sure, Mac was nearly eighteen, and he was only twenty, but there was just something about his best friend that made Bozer go all Mama Bear.

Yawning again, he turned his attention back to the TV…

* * *

 _Jack Dalton, twenty-eight, member of the Army's Delta Force, sighed as he left his C.O's office._

 _His biological father had left when he was only four. His mother had soon remarried, and her new husband, his stepfather, had been his father in all but blood. Jack had taken his surname, and not really thought all that much about his biological father._

 _He'd known that when he was twenty, the man had had another child, another son, with another woman. But he'd never bothered to get in touch or reach out to him in any way, shape or form._

 _He had a father. A real father._

 _That was more than enough for him._

 _But now…now this child, this boy, was all alone in the world._

 _His mother had died when he was five._

 _His father and grandfather had just been killed in a car crash._

 _Well…he was all alone in the world except for Jack._

 _His twenty-years-older brother, whom he'd never met._

 _Jack sighed._

 _His life was about to change drastically. He had no idea how to raise a kid._

 _At least he was in the States on dwell time, and the Army had offered him an honourable discharge on compassionate grounds._

 _Jack was going to take it._

 _He looked down at the photo in his hands._

 _A skinny little boy, looking sad and scared and far younger than his eight years._

 _Jack felt a surge of protectiveness._

 _Little Angus MacGyver, his little brother, was not alone in the world._

 _He had Jack._

* * *

 _Patricia Thornton locked herself in the bathroom cubicle, and put her head in her hands._

 _Her half-sister was dead. Home invasion gone wrong._

 _Her sister, who'd had a daughter, only eight. Riley Davis._

 _Riley was now an orphan._

 _Her father was an abusive drunk, whom Diane had left before Riley had even been born. He was now in prison, and had lost all rights to Riley._

 _Patricia sighed._

 _Her niece had no one else now._

 _Only her, her somewhat distant aunt._

 _Patricia had never wanted children._

 _Never been interested._

 _Didn't think she ever would._

 _She was twenty-eight, youngest Assistant District Attorney in the state._

 _Her focus was on her career, on prosecuting criminals, getting justice, doing good._

 _She was not cut out to raise a child. She was all hard edges and business, not softness and gentleness and affection._

 _But, she remembered how little Riley (though she insisted she was all grown up) had clung to her when she'd gone to retrieve her from the scene, as if she was the only one she had left in the world._

 _Which was true._

 _Patricia Thornton had no idea how to care for a child._

 _But she would learn for Riley's sake._

* * *

 _Fifteen-year-old high school senior (though, only just, it was still September) Angus MacGyver, whom everyone called Mac, waved goodbye to the beautiful blonde girl on his computer screen._

 _His girlfriend (of only a couple of months), Nikki. Eighteen and studying computer science at MIT. On the other side of the country._

 _They'd met when he'd been searching for someone with computer science skills (he didn't know much about computers; when other kids had been learning to use them, he'd been taking his apart to figure out how it worked) to help him with a robot he'd been constructing. Asking for tips on science and engineering forums had led him to her, and not only had she been able to more than help him out with his robot, they'd also become fast friends. Then, they'd met in person at a Caltech summer program just a couple of months ago, and the rest was history._

 _The only bad thing was that she lived in Boston, on the opposite side of the country to Mission City, California._

 _Mac shrugged._

 _She'd be back in her hometown of LA for breaks. She'd promised._

 _As he shut down his laptop, Jack knocked on the door, and Mac reached over to open it._

 _His older brother looked rather serious._

' _Mac…brother, I've got something important to tell you.'_

 _Jack sat down on the edge of his younger brother's bed and gestured with his head towards a photo of Nikki on Mac's bedside table._

' _You weren't the only one who found love down south last summer…'_

* * *

 _Fifteen-year-old Riley sat in front of her computer screen, focused on the code in front of her._

 _When she'd taught herself to hack military-grade encryption, after a brush with the law, her aunt and guardian Patricia had nudged her into white hat work._

 _Now, Riley could hack, get paid and not get into trouble._

 _It was awesome._

 _Mostly she liked her aunt. She was a bit strict, but she was fair. And she did love Riley, and Riley loved her, though they didn't show it all that much._

 _A knock on the door._

' _Riley?'_

 _Though, she hated it when her aunt interrupted her work._

 _But her interest was piqued. Her aunt's voice sounded hesitant._

 _Not like go-getting, tough-as-nails, unusually-young District Attorney Patricia Thornton._

 _She opened the door._

* * *

' _You have a girlfriend? And she's a District Attorney? And she lives in LA?'_

 _Jack nodded, and jogged his brother with his elbow lightly._

' _Yes, brother. Bit slow, for that genius brain of yours!'_

 _His attempt at teasing went over the teen's head entirely._

 _He was still staring at Jack, shock and more than a little hurt on his face._

 _Just as Jack had feared._

 _It had been just the two of them for so long, after all._

* * *

 _Riley gaped at her aunt._

' _Your boyfriend is a mechanic? I did not peg you as the type to go for a man with grease under his nails.'_

 _Patricia sighed._

' _Riley.'_

 _The teenage girl shrugged and turned back to her computer in dismissal._

' _Well, whatever floats your boat.'_

 _Her voice did not reflect her casual words. Anger, upset and hurt were all clear to the D.A. She sighed and wondered if she'd been wrong to still put so much into her career after taking in Riley. Maybe she hadn't spent as much time with her niece as she should have…_

' _We're going up to Mission City to visit Jack and his brother on Saturday.' Her voice softened. 'Please give him a chance, Riley.'_

* * *

' _They're coming to visit us? This weekend? Your girlfriend and her niece?'_

 _Jack reached out and put an arm around his brother._

' _I know it's sudden, Mac. But I really like her.' There'd been a few women, more than a few women, over the years. Casual relationships, on both sides. None that had been serious enough to introduce the lady to Mac, not properly at least. Still, his genius little brother knew about them. 'I'm serious about this one. Give her a chance?'_

 _Mac nodded slowly._

 _If she was so important to his brother, maybe he should try and push away all the nasty feelings that the very idea of Jack's girlfriend brought…_

 _But he wasn't going to promise._

 _He didn't know if he could keep that, and Mac never broke his promises._

' _Okay.'_

* * *

 _Mac and Riley sat in Jack and Mac's living room, watching the latest X-Men movie together. Riley insisted, much to Mac's displeasure, that he looked exactly like the guy who played Alex Summers._

 _But it was the nice kind of displeasure, and the nice kind of annoying._

 _Teasing, between friends._

' _You know, Mac, you're pretty cool.'_

 _He reached out and bumped his fist to hers._

' _You're pretty great too, Riley.'_

 _Both teens looked towards the kitchen, where the adults were preparing dinner._

' _But…I don't want to be your…what in the hell would we be if they got married?'_

 _Mac shrugged._

' _I don't know, and I don't want to think about it. I don't mind your aunt, but she and Jack are a terrible couple.'_

 _Riley nodded in agreement._

' _Yeah, Jack's alright, horrible jokes aside, but him and Patricia?'_

 _She shook her head in revulsion._

' _We have to do something about it.'_

 _Riley cocked an eyebrow at him._

' _Sounds like you've got a plan…'_

 _Mac smiled deviously._

* * *

 _ **To: Riley**_

 _ **We're coming to yours for Thanksgiving.**_

 _ **I've got the perfect idea; check your email. You're going to have to stop by an appliances store and pick up three toasters for me; I can't bring them without Jack getting suspicious.**_

 _ **Oh, also, Bozer says hi. (Well, he actually says, 'hey, queen of my heart, how's it going? Still kicking ass and taking names and breaking hearts with your awesome hacker skills?') Can you please just give him the rest of your number? He won't stop bugging me for it, despite the fact that I keep telling him I promised you I wouldn't give it to him.**_

* * *

 _ **To: Mac**_

 _ **Oh, you're devious. So, so devious, Mr Wizard. But you can't hide the truth from me – you totally came up with this while moping over the fact that your girlfriend's not coming home for Thanksgiving, didn't you? I can feel the moping coming off the screen! I know you miss her, but she'll be back for Winter Break in a month.**_

 _ **Oh, and give Bozer the next three digits. He's growing on me.**_

* * *

' _Mac, I know what you're doing and it's not going to work, brother.'_

 _The teen, prepared for his older brother to yell at him for the absolute disaster (just as he'd planned) that Thanksgiving was, was caught by surprise by his brother's gentle tone._

 _The mechanic sat down on the couch next to his little brother._

' _I'm mad at you, Mac. And disappointed.' Mac bit his lip and looked down. He hated upsetting Jack. 'But I also understand why you and Riley are acting the way you are.' The older brother took a deep breath and chose his next words carefully. 'I know it's just been you and me, brother, for a long time. And there's nothing wrong with that. I didn't feel like our little family was incomplete or anything like that.' Jack shook his head fondly. 'I wasn't looking for love. Patty just kind of snuck up on me.' He reached out and put an arm around Mac's shoulders, then reached out to bump fists with him. 'You're my brother. Always have been, always will be.'_

 _Mac sighed, and nodded, then hugged Jack, before looking away again._

' _It wasn't just that, Jack…it's just…well…what about Sarah?'_

 _Mac had heard his brother's tales (and his brother's Army buddies' tales) about the woman he'd loved, the woman he'd considered the love of his life, who was his fellow solider and apparently a female version of him. She'd left the service to marry her boyfriend and have children._

 _Jack sighed._

' _I loved her...just like I love Patty now.' He smiled wryly. 'I've been alive for a long time, brother, you know that.' Mac liked to call him old man from time to time. 'More than enough time to love a few times' over. And I know Patty and I seem nothing alike on the surface.' Jack was quite silly and fond of joking around, and not much into rules except in regards to his beloved car. Patricia was stricter and more serious. 'But, hey, she's got Riley and I've got you, and she never served, but…well, DAs see some pretty horrific things, Mac. We understand each other and our demons get along. And maybe I need someone to help keep me in check. Equal and opposite forces, Newbury's Third Law, or whatever.'_

 _Mac nodded._

 _There was a light in his older brother's eyes of late._

 _She did make him happy._

 _And that was good enough for Mac._

' _Newton's Third Law, and it's equal and opposite reactions.' His wry smile turned less wry and more serious. 'I promise I'll stop, Jack.'_

* * *

' _Riley…'_

' _Yeah, yeah, I know, you're mad at me for messing up Thanksgiving! What? Am I grounded for life now? Banned from going online? Disowned?'_

 _Patricia just waited for the girl to run out of steam. She raised an eyebrow._

' _Are you finished?'_

 _With a sigh, Riley nodded, and her aunt continued._

' _I know it's not easy, having new people in our lives.' Riley nodded. 'Even if you do get along with them.' Riley nodded again, a small, wry smile on her face. She and Mac certainly got along well, as the disastrous Thanksgiving dinner showed. Patricia walked over and put a hand on her niece's shoulder. She was going off a hunch…but her hunches were usually right. 'You know I don't have a lot of time to spend with my loved ones. I am busy a lot of the time, maybe too much of the time.' She looked into Riley's eyes. 'But I've always made time for you, and I always will. Jack doesn't change that. You know that.'_

 _Riley nodded slowly. That was true. He hadn't, not over the last few months. Her aunt was true to her word._

 _Patricia followed another hunch._

' _And I know he's supposedly just a mechanic, but he's a good, good man, Riley, a kind man. Left the Army, left Delta Force, to care for Mac.' Patricia smiled, expression uncharacteristically soft. 'And he's silly and ridiculous sometimes, but he makes me laugh, he's always there for me and he cares. Makes me happy.' Her aunt's smile grew slightly more wry. 'I think you understand that, don't you?'_

 _Groaning internally (her aunt was taking an interest in her love life!), Riley nodded again. In a rare display of affection, she reached out and hugged her aunt tightly._

 _Slightly surprised, Patricia hugged her back._

* * *

' _Jack?'_

' _Yes, brother?'_

' _When we go to New York for Spring Break with Riley and Patricia…can I catch the train up one day to surprise Nikki?'_

 _He hadn't seen his girlfriend since Christmas and New Year's. She'd not returned to the West Coast for her Spring Break, as it was too short to be worth the journey and the airfare. Mac understood completely, but he did miss her terribly._

 _Jack grinned and clapped him on the back._

' _Of course, brother!'_

* * *

 _Mac, a bouquet of flowers in hand, took the stairs two at a time on the way up to Nikki's apartment. (She made really good money from freelancing and hence didn't live on campus. He knew her address from sending her a birthday present just a month ago.)_

 _He knocked on the door._

 _Instead of the surprised and delighted girlfriend he expected, a burly guy, older than he was, perhaps about twenty, answered the door. He took in Mac's skinny frame and the bunch of flowers, and laughed._

 _Mac tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. There had to be a rational explanation for this…_

 _His girlfriend's voice floated to the doorway._

' _Who is it, baby? Is it the Chinese delivery guy?'_

 _A moment later, she came into his field of view._

 _Nikki's eyes widened._

' _Mac? What…what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in New York!'_

 _Yes, yes he was supposed to be in New York. He'd gotten up early to catch the first train and sat on an Amtrak for four hours, just to surprise his girlfriend._

 _Who clearly didn't miss him as much as he missed her._

 _And who clearly didn't appreciate the surprise visit._

 _He dropped the bouquet of flowers._

' _Was it all a lie?'_

 _Then he turned and ran._

 _He didn't want her to see the tears in his eyes._

* * *

 _ **Mac, you know long distance is hard. I was lonely. You were so far away, and-**_

 _The blonde teen didn't finish reading her text. He just deleted it and blocked her number. Yes, long distance was hard. Sometimes, he was lonely. It was hard, with everyone around him being all couple-y. But he would never, ever, ever have cheated on Nikki, not only because he loved her, but because it was just wrong._

 _His phone chimed._

 _ **OH MY GOD, I AM SO SORRY BRO!**_ _ **I am going to kill that girl for doing that to my bro! She's gonna learn the hard way that no-one puts Angus MacGyver in the corner!**_

 _ **We're going to Burger Nirvana and stuffing our faces with junk food when you get back, bro. My treat. And then we're going to get you another girl to make her jealous. (I hear Darlene just broke up with Donnie Sandoz…)**_

 _ **Anyway, I'm here for you, bro. Call or text anytime if you need me.**_

 _Mac smiled very wanly. Bozer was the best best friend he could ever hope for._

 _He closed Bozer's text (he would probably take up the offer later and call him when he had some privacy) and started a new one._

 _ **To: Jack**_

 _ **She cheated on me, Jack.**_

 _ **I'm on the train back to New York now. It's due to arrive in an hour.**_

 _ **I'm not okay.**_

 _Mac leaned his head against the window, holding back tears (he was not going to cry on a train, for God's sake, he was almost sixteen!)._

* * *

 _Jack met his brother at the train station, an ice-cream cone and a large ice cream sundae in his hands._

 _Wordlessly, he handed the blonde the sundae._

' _I'm sorry, brother.'_

 _Mac nodded and ate his ice cream mechanically as they walked back in silence to the apartment that they were staying in._

 _It was empty._

 _As soon as Jack had received Mac's text, Riley and Patricia had taken one look at Jack's face, heart breaking for his brother, shared a glance with each other and with him, and left the apartment. Riley had said that a girl had to go shopping in Times Square at least once. Patricia hadn't even offered an excuse._

 _Jack was very grateful to both of them for giving the two brothers some privacy._

 _He glanced over at Mac, who was still fighting back tears._

 _Yes, some privacy was definitely necessary._

 _As soon as they were inside, Jack reached out and embraced his younger brother, holding him tight._

 _Mac tucked his head into the crook of Jack's neck and sobbed._

 _Jack's heart wrenched at that heartbroken sound._

 _He pushed down the rage he felt._

 _There would be time to be mad at that girl later._

 _Now, Mac needed him, and needed comfort._

' _I've got you, brother. I'm here…'_

* * *

' _She's an idiot, Mac.'_

 _The blonde teen looked up at his friend, who'd just walked into his room, face morose. Riley and Patricia had returned about ten minutes ago, and Jack had left Mac in their care while he went out to pick up some pizza._

 _Riley, being a teenager and intimately knowing the fragile nature of a teen's self-confidence and being clever enough to piece together Mac's school experiences from his stories, Bozer's tales and her own inferences, was pretty sure what sort of thoughts were rolling through his big brain at that moment._

' _You're a catch, Mac. Not that I'd ever…' She made a face. 'Ugh. Just ugh.' Mac gave a very, very wan smile, just for a second. 'But you're a great guy. Smart, kind, big-hearted…' She wrinkled her nose. 'And you're pretty handsome.' Riley spoke with an element of near-revulsion, like a girl forced to admit that her brother was not actually ugly and snot-faced. Then, she took on a more serious tone again. 'The right girl will see that.'_

 _She let her words sink in for a moment._

 _After a minute of silence, Mac reached out and bumped his fist with hers._

' _Thanks, Riley.'_

* * *

 _There was a knock on Mac's door._

' _Jack's back with the pizza, Mac.'_

 _Patricia's voice._

 _Mac didn't feel like eating pizza._

' _Can I come in?'_

 _Mac didn't feel like speaking or getting up either, so he didn't respond or open the door._

 _After a moment, the door opened slightly._

 _Patricia peeked in, looking uncharacteristically awkward._

 _Mac just nodded at her._

 _She walked into his room, almost hesitantly._

' _It's none of my business…but I'm sorry, Mac.' She hesitated for a moment, then reached out and squeezed his shoulder gently. Then, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a box of paperclips._

 _He reached out and took them._

 _She'd noticed._

 _He smiled very wanly up at her._

 _She smiled a small smile back at him and squeezed his shoulder again._

' _Come out when you're ready. I'll make sure we save some pizza for you.'_

 _She walked over to the door, and Mac finally found his voice._

' _Thanks.'_

 _She nodded, a rare soft smile on her face, and then left, closing the door behind her._

* * *

Strange, that was a very familiar sound….

Bozer awoke with a start, to find his best friend closing their front door behind him.

He glanced over at the clock.

It was almost 2 am.

Mac noticed him waking.

'Oh, I'm sorry, Bozer…'

Bozer dismissed Mac's concerns with a wave of his hand.

'Don't worry about it, bro. That door never closes quietly, you know that.' He furrowed his brow. 'I was having the strangest dream…' A slow grin grew on his face. 'But it was so inspiring! I've totally got my next script all mapped out!'


	13. Mac Has Awesome Friends

Mac walked around the spectator area of the 2018 MIT Solar Car Competition, searching for Jack, Bozer and Riley. They'd promised to come and watch his team go for the hat-trick, and Bozer had said that they had a surprise for him. (Penny had sent her deepest apologies; she had a class theatre performance and couldn't come, but promised to stop by for ice cream later that night.)

Unfortunately, he wasn't watching where he was going, occupied with searching for his friends, and walked right into someone.

'Oh, I'm so sorry!'

'Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going!'

He got a proper look at the person he'd run into.

'Oh, hi, Beth.'

'Hey, Mac.' The girl grinned up at him. 'You know, I think we're taking this _it was nice to run into you_ thing a little too literally…'

He laughed.

'Yeah, it's a nicer idea metaphorically.'

 _Wait a moment…_

 _Pretty much only engineering students come to this. (It's not exactly a football game.)_

 _Beth's definitely not one._

 _What's she doing here?_

The girl laughed and shook her head.

'Firstly, while I can't do it myself, I _do_ appreciate fine engineering, you know.' Mac looked sheepish and she grinned. 'I can practically _see_ you thinking _what's she doing here?_ And secondly, my boyfriend and his friends have got an entry and I'm here to show my support!' She gestured behind him. 'And it looks like I'm not the only one; I think you've got some fans. Either that, or they just really like mac n' cheese.'

Mac turned around.

Jack, Riley and Bozer were standing about thirty feet away, wearing T-shirts decorated with a mac n' cheese logo.

Mac n' Cheese was the name of Mac's Solar Car Competition team. The name had come about one very late night in his freshman year, when after a few too many energy drinks and not enough sleep while working on their entry, they'd decided that 'cheese' sounded like 'Charlie', and the name had been born. In the morning, they'd realized how stupid it sounded, particularly since Mac and Charlie clearly didn't make up the entire team…but it had stuck regardless.

Jack and Bozer wore the ridiculous shirts with proud grins, while Riley stood next to her boyfriend, a look of _I can't believe I'm wearing this_ on her face. Though, Mac knew, the fact that she was actually wearing it was equivalent to her doing a whole cheer routine for him and his team.

Mac turned back to Beth, who was smiling at his friends' antics.

'Well, looks like I've found my friends. I should get going, see you around, Beth.'

'See you around, Mac!'

She walked off in the opposite direction, and Mac strode over to his friends.

'I'm guessing the T-shirts are the big surprise?'

Bozer nodded eagerly, and slung an arm around his shoulders.

'Yeah, bro! What do you think?'

Mac glanced at the T-shirts.

 _Let's just say that they're not going to become the latest fashion trend._

 _Or maybe they will._

 _Have you seen what's in style nowadays?_

'I really appreciate the sentiment, Bozer.'

Riley jogged Bozer with her elbow.

'Told you they were a bit much.'

Jack shook his head and slung his arm around Mac too.

'Nah, we're just making it clear whose team we're on!' He leaned a little closer to Mac. 'Now, who was that little lady?'

Mac groaned.

Bozer, too, leaned a little closer.

'She looks about your age, Mac, and hey, I'm happily attached to my gorgeous computer goddess here, but she's pretty cute!'

The blonde teen shook his head.

 _And of course they can't keep their noses out of my (currently non-existent) love life._

'That's Beth, and yes, I think she's going to be nineteen soon too.' He ignored his three friends' extremely interested expressions. 'I barely know her, guys. We were in the same chem lab group in freshman year, and we've run into each other a few times since. We're friendly acquaintances, that's all.' Mac shook his head again. 'Can I really not just _talk_ to a girl without you guys reading _way_ too much into it? There's nothing going on with me and her, I promise. Besides, even if I _was_ interested, she's got a boyfriend.'

Both Jack and Bozer squeezed him a little tighter, grinning teasingly, knowing that Mac's promises were always kept and always the truth, but unwilling to pass up this prime opportunity to tease him. Riley smirked at him.

'Sorry, brother.'

'Too bad, bro.'

'Aw, shucks, Mac.'

 _And of course they'll never stop teasing._

 _Well, turnabout's fair play._

Mac shook his head, smiling, then nudged Jack with his elbow.

'Enough about my love life, old man, a little birdie told me that you've been flirting with Thornton…'

The mechanic shot Riley a look of betrayal. The girl just shrugged, her face a picture of innocence. Too innocent.

'Patty and I are _friends_ and occasional training buddies, kid.'

His three younger friends exchanged glances.

 _Patty?_

 _We're totally interrogating him for this…_

Mac glanced at his watch.

 _Later. It'll have to be later._

'Anyway, guys, I've got to run.' He smiled at his friends and reached out to bump fists with all of them. 'I really, really do appreciate you guys coming to support me and my team. Thanks!'

'Anytime, brother.'

'Like we'd miss this, bro!'

'That's what friends are for, Mac.'

With a last grin and a thumbs-up, he jogged off in the direction of his team's set-up area.

* * *

Later, after a celebratory dinner with his team and after-dinner ice cream with Jack, Riley, Bozer and Penny, Mac logged on to his email.

He'd promised Valerie photos of their car, as well as an update on how they did.

To his surprise, there was an email from Patricia Thornton in his inbox.

 _Congratulations on your third consecutive victory in the Solar Car Competition, Mac. Well-deserved._

 _I'm glad to inform you that all of the difficult parts are now over; there's only a 'standard' employee contract, outlining sick leave, pay and the like, for you to go over and sign. Please stop by Phoenix and head to HR at your earliest convenience._

 _We're looking forward to welcoming you to Phoenix._

 _Patricia Thornton_


	14. Mac is a Star, Yet Again

AN: Tinkerbella, this is the chapter I was talking about.

* * *

Bozer sighed, reached over to the other side of his desk, grabbed his now-lukewarm can of soda, and took a long chug.

He rubbed his temple, set down his soda can, and got back to working on the multitude of scripts that he had on the go before him.

So many ideas, half-formed ideas, key scenes stuck in his head, and he just couldn't get any of them into some sort of coherent, original storyline…

* * *

' _Angus…'_

 _Mac sighed, turning around and facing his girlfriend._

' _If you're calling me that, it must be bad.'_

 _Penny reached out and took his hand, trying to stay him as he strode determinedly towards the Army recruiting booth at the Stark Expo they were attending. They were supposed to be on a date._

' _They're just going to reject you again, Mac.'_

 _She stepped closer to him, putting a hand on his arm and looking into his eyes._

 _Mac glanced between the booth and his girl, torn._

 _It was true. They were going to reject him again. He was small and skinny, barely taller than Penny and probably not even as strong as she was (Why she was willing to go steady with him, he had no idea.). He had a list of health problems longer than his arm, and he'd already been rejected on medical grounds five times over._

 _He also hated guns and wasn't much into violence, despite the fact that he often found himself in fights._

 _But he hated bullies, and he was all for defending the innocent, defending his loved ones, defending what needed to be protected. Doing the right thing. (Hence the frequent fist-fights, much to Penny's worry.)_

 _And the Nazis were terrible, terrible bullies. Much worse than Donnie Sandoz from around the corner._

 _They had to be stopped, and Mac felt a keen sense of responsibility to do his part, a guilt for staying here, safe at home with Penny, while almost every other able-bodied man of his age went off to fight the good fight._

 _Penny looked into his eyes, and then her eyes searched his face. She gave a sad little smile of understanding, and put a hand over his heart._

' _Always knew you were a good man, Mac. The best.' She looked down for a moment, then raised her head and nodded. 'Go.'_

 _He squeezed her hand tightly, and smiled softly at her, trying to articulate his gratitude in gestures. Then, he turned and strode determinedly towards the recruiting booth._

* * *

' _You'll write me?'_

 _Mac held his girl tighter. He was about to ship off for basic. A scientist, a German man called Erskine, had offered him a chance at the Expo, and of course, he'd taken it._

' _I promise.'_

 _She knew he never broke his promises._

 _Penny leaned forward and kissed him, then pulled away slightly, stroking his cheek gently with her hand._

' _I'll be waiting for you.'_

* * *

 _It had all happened so fast._

 _One moment, he was skinny and sickly and weak, lying in a machine, then the next, he was bigger and stronger than even Donnie Sandoz, and then the next second, Erskine was dead and a Nazi spy had seized a vial of the serum…_

 _And now he was pursuing the man along the streets of New York, towards the docks._

 _He was never going to catch him._

 _Mac glanced around him as he ran. He noticed a short coil of rope, and some hammers…_

 _Erskine had said he'd picked him because of what was in his heart and what was in his brain._

 _He'd said that he was only going to give him a body to enable him to use what he'd already had for good._

 _Mac threw the makeshift bola at the legs of the Nazi spy._

* * *

 _Mac reached out of the train, desperately trying to reach the man who'd taken him under his wing, cared for him and watched his back like an older brother, taught him about fighting and war and coping with the darkness._

 _His mind was seized with panic; there was nothing in the train car, nothing that he could use. He, for once, had no ideas._

 _When he really, really needed an idea, his brain had failed._

 _Jack just shook his head at him as Mac reached out even further._

' _Not your fault, brother, not your-'_

 _The metal rail that Jack was holding on to gave way, and his words faded into a scream as he fell into the abyss._

 _Mac gave an answering scream._

' _Jack!'_

* * *

 _Bozer's eyes widened as the young blonde man in a brown leather jacket walked into the video store he ran with a few of his buddies. (They were literally the last video store left in D.C; it was the age of Netflix, after all, but being staffed entirely by film buffs gave them a little edge over the average video store. Some people still appreciated good, old-fashioned customer service and recommendations.)_

 _Of course he recognized the man who'd helped save New York two years ago. Everyone did, unless they'd been living under a rock, surely. Everyone knew all about him. WWII hero, frozen in the Arctic for seventy years, now a 21_ _st_ _century superhero. Angus MacGyver, better known as Captain America, the Man with a Plan._

 _But Bozer had seen enough movies to know that superheroes, particularly superheroes with_ _ **that**_ _look on their faces and MacGyver's tragic backstory, definitely wanted to go around incognito, definitely wanted to have some sort of civilian life, a secret identity of sorts. Besides, his girlfriend worked for Stark Industries; before she'd transferred to their D.C offices, she'd worked in the Tower in New York, and she'd seen The Avengers at relatively-close range a handful of times. She'd told him that they were all big balls of PTSD with a laundry list of issues._

 _So he just walked up to him like any other customer, and asked if he'd like a recommendation._

' _Now, bro, my personal favourites are over here, and my girl Riley would never forgive me if I didn't get you to watch Deep Impact…'_

* * *

 _Mac shook his head as he made for the extraction point._

 _This was supposed to be a simple mission._

 _SHIELD had suspected that The Lemurian Star, a cruise ship, was being used to help smuggle and sell stolen classified information._

 _He was to infiltrate the ship as a passenger, undercover and in disguise, with his partner, both in the personal and professional sense, Nikki Carpenter, hacker extraordinaire, and retrieve the information and gather intel on the seller and the potential buyers._

 _Simple._

 _Instead, they'd discovered that Hydra hadn't fallen with the Nazis during the war._

 _The evil organization was alive and well._

 _ **Guess their motto was right, even if their logo is completely wrong.**_

 _He glanced around and slipped through the door. He and Nikki had split up; she had taken the data stick with the classified information and the intel, while he had retrieved all of their equipment, removing all the evidence of their espionage. They were meant to rendezvous at the extraction point in three minutes._

 _He arrived at the extraction point, to find that the beautiful blonde woman was already there, her gun raised. She looked a little…off._

 _Something stirred in the back of his mind._

 _ **How did she get here so quickly? We had to remain unseen by all the Hydra agents, and I'm faster, and I had the shorter route. I should have been here first…**_

 _Nikki pointed her gun at him. His eyes widened, but before he could recover from the shock, she shot him three times, once through the left bicep, once through the right calf and once through the upper left thigh._

 _He sank to the floor, eyes never leaving her face, wide and shocked at her betrayal._

 _She walked up to him, a smirk on her face._

' _Sorry, Mac.' He swore there was the slightest tinge of regret on her face. Just the slightest. Then it disappeared. 'Hail Hydra!' She brought the butt of her gun down on the back of his head._

* * *

 _Mac staggered out of the elevator, and knocked on the second door on the left. He'd been here only once before, but thankfully he remembered the way. He pushed down the guilt he felt for bringing danger to their doorstep._

 _ **I have no choice.**_

 _ **No other options available to me.**_

 _ **If I don't get help, and if I don't stop Hydra, then millions of people are going to die…including them, almost certainly.**_

 _Bozer opened the door, and stared at him, eyes wide._

' _Bro, what happened-'_

' _Everyone I know is trying to kill me.'_

 _Riley came up to the door behind her boyfriend, and the couple looked their friend up and down, then exchanged a glance. Bozer opened the door wider._

' _Not everyone.'_

 _They helped him over to their couch._

 _Mac smiled wanly up at them._

' _Thanks, guys, I appreciate it.' He winced. 'Riley, you said one of your friends is an ER doctor? And can you help me get a secure message to the other Avengers?'_

* * *

 _Mac stared at the man on the bridge, the man who'd tried his hardest to kill him and his boss, Patricia Thornton, who'd thankfully turned out to be not-Hydra. Unlike a good proportion of SHIELD, including his ex-partner._

 _ **It's not possible.**_

 _ **But then again, I am intimately familiar with the impossible.**_

 _ **My presence in the 21**_ _ **st**_ _ **century, still not even biologically thirty, is supposedly impossible, and I pull off what is considered impossible by most people on a day-to-day basis.**_

 _ **And the evidence doesn't lie.**_

 _ **He looks exactly the same as he did all those years ago, on the train…except for that arm.**_

 _He took a hesitant step closer to the assassin._

' _Jack!'_

 _His friend, his brother, looked at him blankly._

' _Who the hell is Jack?'_

* * *

 _Mac and Bozer stood together in front of Nikki's grave._

 _She'd been killed in the fight to stop the Helicarrier launches. Thornton herself had witnessed her death and had later confirmed the identity of the body. (Mac just…couldn't.)_

 _Bozer reached out and placed a hand on the taller man's shoulder._

' _I know she was evil, bro, but it's totally okay to mourn her. She was your girlfriend.'_

 _Mac pulled a paperclip out of his pocket, and started fiddling with it._

' _I'm not still in love with Nikki, Bozer.'_

 _The other man looked concernedly up at him, then at the paperclip heart, cut in two with jagged edges, that Mac now held in his hands._

' _Bro-'_

' _I appreciate your concern, Bozer, really, but…I just don't want to talk about her.'_

 _His friend nodded, and just squeezed his shoulder._

' _Whenever you feel like it, bro, I'm here.'_

 _Mac smiled wanly._

' _Thanks, Bozer.'_

 _At that moment, Riley and Thornton joined them at the grave._

 _The younger woman handed him a file._

' _That's all the intel that anyone's ever gathered on The Winter Solider.'_

 _Mac reached out and took the file._

' _Jack Dalton. His name's Jack Dalton.'_

 _Riley nodded._

' _Sorry, that's all the intel anyone's ever gathered on Jack Dalton.'_

 _Mac skimmed through the file. There was definitely a lot of intel in here that wasn't SHIELD, hadn't been leaked in the data dump. There were NSA files, CIA files, files from every USA alphabet agency. He raised an eyebrow at the last few pages. They were in Russian._

 _He looked up at the two women._

 _ **I know Riley's got some black hat stuff in her past, but she's been flying straight for years now, and Thornton's very by-the-book…**_

 _The older woman gave him a small, wry smile._

' _I called in some favours for most of it.' She paused, looking more uncertain than Mac had ever seen her. 'Besides, SHIELD's gone, Mac. We answer to our own consciences now.' She looked up, gaze boring into his eyes. Her expression softened. 'And you deserve answers, and Jack deserves justice.'_

 _Mac closed the file, and looked briefly down at Nikki's grave, then at his friends._

' _I'm going to bring Jack home.'_

* * *

Bozer sighed and closed the loosely-bound script he'd been reading.

He was really proud of it, actually, but it was deep in fanfic territory, rather than being an original work. It just wouldn't fly, unfortunately.

He reached for the next lot of papers. (His desk was covered in them; there was just something nice about working with real paper scripts, even if he wrote primarily on his laptop. Editing was always easier with real paper.)

His gaze fell on a single sheet, which was, unusually, hand-written, covered in messy scribbles…

* * *

 _Jack Dalton, town mechanic, and Riley Davis and Wilt Bozer, Mac's fellow high school seniors, stared at the blonde teenager and the literal monster truck in the garage before them._

' _Kid, when I suggested that you turn that big brain of yours to fixing yourself up a car, this was_ _ **not**_ _what I had in mind…'_

' _Bro, last week, you were riding a bicycle…'_

 _Mac looked somewhat sheepish, and gestured towards the monster who'd taken up residence in his car, then at his friends._

' _Creech, these are my friends. Guys, this is Creech.'_

 _Riley cocked an eyebrow at him._

' _You named him_ _ **Creech**_ _?'_

* * *

Bozer just shook his head.

He had no idea what in the world he'd been thinking.

He was just going to blame Lucas Till's uncanny resemblance to his best friend. (That's what he'd done when he wrote that weird country music-themed script set in Tennessee, complete with barn dance, of all things. Though, that was probably also partly Jack's fault…the older man did love his country, after all.)

Seriously, as much as Mac claimed not to be able to see it, Bozer was pretty sure that they were long-lost relatives. If the actor wasn't a few years older than his friend, he'd have insisted that they were identical twins, separated at birth.

He turned to the next stack of papers, another half-finished script, and started flicking through it…

* * *

 _Nikki glanced at her fellow 'students': Bozer, Riley, Charlie, Penny and Mac. Her eyes lingered on the lean blonde teenager the longest._

 _She stepped forwards, towards Murdoc, the man their 'teachers', Thornton and Jack, insisted was bad. Insisted was wrong. Insisted that his belief that mutant-kind and human-kind could not exist in peace and harmony, that mutant-kind represented the next stage in evolution and was meant to inherit the world, was wrong._

 _Mac stepped forwards after her, reaching out towards her._

' _Nikki-'_

 _She turned back to him and shook her head._

' _He's right, Mac.'_

' _No-'_

' _You_ _ **don't understand**_ _, Mac. I could hack the NSA if I wanted, as long as I was touching a device with internet access! They're_ _ **always**_ _going to want to lock me up, Mac!'_

 _He shook his head firmly._

' _Nikki, that's not true. You've got a gift that you can use for good! To help people! Jack and Thornton-'_

' _-The world's not that simple, Mac! It's not that black and white!_ _ **We don't live in an ideal world!**_ _'_

 _She tore her gaze away from his, ignoring the heartbroken look in his eyes, and started walking towards Murdoc again. Away from him._

' _I know we don't, Nikki! But we can make it better!'_

 _She paused, and turned around, locking eyes with him._

' _Not their way, Mac. Not their way. That's why I have to do this.'_

 _She turned around again, and walked up to Murdoc, took his hand._

 _She didn't look back._

* * *

Bozer threw the script aside. Again, too much like a fanfic, not original enough. (And again, probably at least partially attributable to Mac's resemblance to a certain actor. And possibly partially attributable to all those years of watching his best friend be a bullied outcast because he was _different_.)

He grinned as he pulled out the next sheaf of papers.

Now, this one looked promising.

It was the tenth episode of the TV show that he was working on, the one that he'd tentatively titled _MacGyver_.

He was very proud of that tenth episode, in which the titular hero, heavily inspired by his best friend, returned to his hometown of Mission City. He was especially proud of himself for incorporating the girl that Mac mentored, Valerie, into it, and the neat little parallels with and revelations about the titular hero's past that her appearance in the script provided. And that little scene with him and Mac and Riley and Jack in the lime-green minivan at the start? That was comedy gold that also reflected the characters' relationships perfectly, even if he said so himself.

Bozer's grin widened.

He had the _best_ idea for the Christmas episode.

Pastrami and paperclips and Christmas miracles and the Chinese and nuclear war…

Oh, and Mac had been talking about how one could make an air raid siren the other day, and hey, maybe he could work in Riley's mom (Diane Davis was awesome)…

Bozer opened his laptop and started typing.

 **DECEMBER 2016**

 **MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE**

* * *

AN: Yes, even more meta jokes. I completely relate to Bozer in this story; I have so many half-formed ideas and a handful of scenes in my head, I just can't get any of them into a coherent story line, which is partially why I keep asking for prompts/requests- already, those have helped me actually use some of those scenes! (Thank you!) There's one more chapter of this story left; the title is (rather unsurprisingly) Mac Graduates.


	15. Mac Graduates

'I'm not even surprised you're graduating a year early, genius. Don't you forget about us when you're out there solving the problems of the future while we're still slaving away in classes!'

Mac smiled and reached out, clasping Charlie's proffered hand and pulling him into a hug.

'Like I could forget the late night study sessions and all-nighters working on projects.'

His former roommate clapped him soundly on the back.

'Keep in touch?'

Mac nodded.

'I promise. Besides, we'll all be in Boston for at least another year.'

Letting go of Charlie, Mac waved goodbye to his little group of engineering buddies, and started making his way through the crowd, towards where he'd said he'd meet Jack, Riley, Bozer and Penny, who'd all come to watch him graduate.

It took a while, since he kept stopping to greet friends and classmates.

He spotted Nikki in the crowd and turned and walked the other way. He smiled at Katarina, who waved back at him, and exchanged a friendly wave with Cindy, who was congratulating her graduating boyfriend. He stopped and chatted briefly to a couple of guys he'd been in Pena's classes with. He darted behind a tree in order to avoid that seriously annoying venture capitalist, Ralph something-or-the-other, who'd sponsored the most recent Engineering Hackathon, and then stayed behind the tree for a moment, having spotted Professor Sevchenko. (All the students swore that the nuclear physics professor was trying to restart the Cold War.)

 _Time's funny that way._

 _It's all gone by so fast…_

 _I know I've been here a year less than most people…but it doesn't even feel like three years._

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he was tackled by a familiar figure.

'Congratulations, Mac!'

He hugged Penny back tightly.

'Thanks, Penny.'

Eventually, she let go of him, and he was quickly embraced by Bozer, who seemed keen to squeeze all the air out of his lungs.

'I can't believe it…graduating from MIT at nineteen…I'm so proud of you, bro!' Mac's best friend sniffled. 'I'm going to miss you so, so much…'

Mac hugged his roommate back just as tightly and laughed.

'I'm not even moving out, Bozer! The Phoenix Foundation's based in Boston, remember?'

Bozer disentangled himself from Mac and nodded.

'True, true, bro.' He grinned. 'Still, you better not go all responsible-adult-with-a-proper-job on me.'

Riley scoffed, but wound her arm around her boyfriend anyway.

Mac shook his head.

'Remember what I promised you, when we left for college?'

Bozer nodded.

'Best friends forever.' The twenty-one year old grinned. 'And my bro never breaks his promises.'

The two young men bumped fists with one another with a smile.

Riley stepped forward, and to Mac's surprise, hugged him.

'Congrats, Mac.' She let go of him and grinned. 'I'm going to miss catching up for coffee between classes, though.'

Riley had just finished her first year at MIT, doing computer science.

Mac smirked at her.

'Pretty sure we'll still being seeing plenty of each other.'

Riley probably spent about as much time at his and Bozer's as she did in her own dorm.

Jack reached out and put his hand on Mac's shoulder and addressed the little circle of friends.

'Now, if no-one's got any objections, I'm going to borrow the man of the moment for half an hour or so, and then we'll head over, okay?'

They'd planned to have dinner at Mac and Bozer's. Bozer was going to make his incredible burgers.

Penny, Riley and Bozer nodded, somewhat surprised, then Bozer grinned and clapped Jack on the back.

'Can't rush the perfect burger. They should be ready if you guys come around in about forty minutes.'

Jack grinned.

'Excellent.' He started leading Mac away. 'Come on, brother, I've got a surprise for you.'

* * *

'She's yours, brother.'

Mac stared at the car in front of him.

A 1957 Chevrolet Nomad. Fully restored.

Just like the car his grandfather had had, the one that he used to take Mac for drives in when he was a boy.

And it looked exactly like he'd described it to Jack.

Of course, Mac had noticed the car in the garage of late. Jack had said that he was restoring it for a special client, who'd insisted that only Jack worked on it. Mac had been a little miffed (he was _so_ sick of people doubting his skills because of his youth), but Jack _was_ the actual trained mechanic of the two, and the customer _was_ always right.

 _Jack, you devious old man…_

The older man walked over and slung an arm around his shoulders.

'Sorry for lying to you, brother, but I couldn't have had you working on your own graduation present, could I?'

Mac just shook his head, still in shock.

'I…Thanks, Jack…I don't know what to say…'

He really didn't, so he just hugged the mechanic tightly, pouring all of his emotions (gratitude, joy, love, a sense of brotherhood) into the gesture.

Jack hugged him back just as tightly, and Mac swore the older man's voice was a little rough with tears when he responded.

'I expect to see you here often, brother, say, every Saturday. Unless you have a hot date Friday night, of course.'

Mac laughed and nodded.

'I promise.'

He let go of the older man and reached into his pocket, pulling out his keyring and removing the key to the shop. He held it out to Jack, who shook his head.

'Keep it, Mac. You're welcome here anytime.'

Mac grinned slowly and reached out and put an arm around Jack's shoulders.

'Thanks, Jack.'

 _Thanks never seems enough._

'Now, what do you say we head over to your place? I don't know about you, but I'm dying for a couple of Bozer's burgers.'

Jack tossed a set of car keys at the blonde.

Mac, who'd started making his way to the passenger side out of habit, cocked his head at him.

Except for when Jack had been teaching him how to drive, Jack always drove, not him.

Jack just shook his head, smiling.

'She's _your_ car, brother.'

With a grin, Mac walked over to the driver's seat. Jack got in, and once they were both buckled in, Mac turned the key in the ignition.

The car purred to life. The two brothers-in-all-but-blood exchanged a grin and drove off into the sunset.

* * *

 _I'm going to miss college._

 _It's been a great three years._

 _Great classes, great professors, great friends, learnt lots._

 _Grew up quite a bit too._

 _It's been a great chapter of my life._

 _But my grandfather always said, all good things come to an end, but that end's just the start of more good things._

 _I'm looking forward to the good things the future holds._

* * *

Mac pulled up at the Phoenix Foundation in his brand-new car. He walked into the building, relieved that the think-tank's fairly loose dress code allowed him to wear his favourite brown leather jacket.

Standing in the lobby was Patricia Thornton.

As he walked up to her, she gave a small smile and held a hand out for him to shake.

'Welcome to the Phoenix Foundation, Mac.'

* * *

AN: Just like Mac's college years, this story, too, had to come to an end. I'm glad you guys enjoyed it, and thank you kindly for all of your support!

I have no plans for any more _MacGyver_ stories at the moment, and I probably won't start anything *big* or multi-chap, since I go back to uni in just under a month, but I am very open to prompts to add to _Two Paperclips and a Stick of Gum!_ If you've got a prompt or a request, just drop me a line in a review/comment/PM!


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